Zano rolls back blockchain after exploit hits token supply

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Zano blockchain rollback after exploit

Highlights

Zano restarted its blockchain at block 3,833,000, undoing approximately one month of transactions to counteract an exploit tied to Hard Fork 6.
The rollback invalidates both unauthorized and legitimate transactions, requiring nodes, miners, stakers, and exchanges to update their software for the recovery to take effect.
Zano attributes the exploit to a Gateway Address flaw, emphasizing operational risks when integrating new infrastructure for exchanges and privacy-focused networks.

Rollback plan and recovery steps

As reported by Cointelegraph, Zano has restarted the blockchain at block 3,833,000, immediately before Hard Fork 6, which introduced the feature tied to the exploit. The core team says participating nodes, miners, stakers, exchanges and other services need to adopt the update for the recovery to take effect.

The reset invalidates legitimate transactions recorded over roughly the past month along with the unauthorized tokens. Zano says those transactions will no longer appear on the recovered chain and may need to be reconciled, while payments already settled on other blockchains cannot be reversed.

The project says it is working to account for losses and plans to publish a reimbursement and claims process. Quinten van Welzen, Zano's head of marketing and growth, says leaving the unauthorized ZANO and fUSD in circulation without limit would dilute holders and undermine the fixed-supply model of the currency.

Gateway Address flaw and sector impact

Zano has not published a post-mortem, but says the issue stems from Gateway Addresses, a feature designed to help bridges, exchanges and payment services manage funds through a single account-style balance. Before that feature, ordinary Zano wallets tracked funds as separate UTXOs, forcing services to scan the blockchain for incoming payments and manage outputs for withdrawals.

Zano launched in May 2019 as a layer-1 blockchain focused on private payments, with standard transactions concealing senders, receivers, amounts and asset types. Alongside its native ZANO token, the network also supports custom digital assets such as Freedom Dollar, or fUSD.

Van Welzen says restarting the chain costs Zano a month of history and damages trust, but restores the supply model users originally accepted. For the broader crypto sector, the rollback highlights the operational risk that can emerge when new infrastructure features for exchanges and cross-platform services are added to privacy-focused networks.

Ondo Finance’s expansion of tokenized-asset infrastructure drew investor attention as it moved closer to mainstream market plumbing, including joining DTCC’s Fund/SERV network and rolling out new on-chain investment products. In our earlier article, we noted that these steps signal growing integration between traditional finance rails and blockchain workflows, with tokenization positioned as a scalable bridge for funds and other real-world assets.

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