Zano has executed an emergency chain restart from block 3,833,000 after a vulnerability in its Gateway Address feature allowed unauthorized ZANO and Freedom Dollar (fUSD) tokens to enter circulation. The rollback removes roughly one month of network history, as block 3,833,000 sits immediately before Hard Fork 6 activated Gateway Addresses on August 26.
The project said the vulnerability broke Zano’s fixed-supply guarantee by enabling unauthorized issuance through Gateway Addresses. However, investigators found no compromise of wallet spend keys or ordinary transaction privacy. Zano’s core team described consensus as unaffected and said the emergency release removes activity created through the vulnerable feature.
The recovery requires miners, stakers, nodes, exchanges, pools and other services to install updated software version 2.2.3.600 and follow the recovered chain. Transactions confirmed during the affected month no longer form part of the blockchain. Zano warned users to verify whether exchanges, wallets, bridges and payment providers have migrated before sending funds. MEXC temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals for ZANO and FUSD during the migration, without announcing a restart time.
Quinten van Welzen, Zano’s head of marketing and growth, rejected claims that the team could unilaterally erase history, explaining that developers can only release software and ask network operators to adopt it. He acknowledged that mining pools carry significant weight in choosing the chain and said a broader independent operator base would strengthen the network. Van Welzen stated that reimbursement would come from the development fund, team holdings and large holders, and that no new ZANO tokens would be issued to cover losses. The project is still preparing a formal claims process.
The rollback invalidates legitimate payments made alongside unauthorized token activity, and assets already settled on other networks, such as USDT or DAI, remain outside the recovery reach. Zano has not yet published a technical post-mortem but plans to detail the exploit’s cause, review related Gateway Address code and set conditions for the feature’s potential return. ZANO traded near $6.32 during recovery, down roughly 12.85% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization near $97.6 million.
