Wanchain's cross-chain bridge connecting to the Cardano blockchain was compromised in an exploit that resulted in the theft of 515 million NIGHT tokens, valued at approximately $10 million, according to security disclosures from Midnight Foundation.
The breach targeted the bridge infrastructure rather than core protocol systems. Midnight Foundation clarified in an official statement that the incident did not compromise the Midnight protocol itself, its validator set, consensus mechanism, or core infrastructure components, limiting the scope of the vulnerability to the cross-chain bridge operated by Wanchain.
The exploit marks another significant security incident for cross-chain bridge infrastructure, a recurring vulnerability vector in decentralized finance. Bridge protocols, which enable asset transfers across separate blockchains, have attracted repeated attacks due to their complexity and the concentration of assets they typically hold. The incident underscores ongoing challenges in securing interoperability solutions as the ecosystem scales.