Cardano Suffers Short-Lived Chain Split Amid Reported AI-Assisted Exploit of Existing Bug

Cardano Briefly Splits Into Two Chains After Malformed Transaction

Cardano experienced a brief chain split on Friday after a malformed transaction was processed differently by older and newer node versions, causing network divergence.

According to Intersect, the governance body for the Cardano ecosystem, newer nodes accepted the transaction while older nodes rejected it. This exploited a bug in a software library, prompting some block producers to build on a “poisoned” chain while others stayed on the canonical “healthy” chain.

The transaction came from a wallet linked to a former testnet participant, and the event is under investigation as a possible cyberattack. Developers released patched node software, and operators were instructed to upgrade to restore network consistency.

Exchanges and wallets paused deposits and withdrawals as a precaution, but Intersect confirmed that no user funds were lost, and most retail wallets were unaffected.

Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson called the incident a targeted attack by a disgruntled stake-pool operator. He warned the disruption impacted block producers, DeFi protocols, and that full network recovery could take weeks.