Midnight price crashed 30% today and is now trading around $0.019. The token plummeted from its already low levels to a record low near $0.016 before recovering slightly.
I am personally not a big fan of Cardano and its ecosystem. But this incident definitely deserves an explanation. Let me break down exactly what happened.
Midnight (NIGHT) was down over 26% earlier today after a whale started selling millions of tokens. The wallet dumped more than 10 million ADA worth of NIGHT tokens in a short period. That same wallet still holds more than 200 million NIGHT.
The selling pressure was massive. The token fell more than 30% intraday to around $0.016, hitting a record low.
What you'll learn 👉
The Wanchain Bridge Exploit
BlockSec’s Phalcon reported that Wanchain’s Cardano bridge was exploited , with approximately 515 million NIGHT drained from the bridge treasury.
The initial analysis pointed to an issue with non-injective signed-message encoding in the TreasuryCheck validator. This may have enabled signature reuse attacks.
BlockSec: Wanchain Cardano Bridge Reportedly Exploited, 515M NIGHT Drained
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 21, 2026
BlockSec's Phalcon said Wanchain's Cardano bridge was reportedly exploited, with approximately 515 million NIGHT drained from the bridge treasury. Initial analysis suggests the issue may stem from… pic.twitter.com/7u1LHOlWul
In simple terms: the attacker found a way to reuse signatures to drain the bridge of its NIGHT reserves. Only NIGHT was taken. Other bridged tokens were left untouched.
Midnight Foundation Clarification
The Midnight Foundation quickly issued a clarification:
“The incident is isolated to the Wanchain Cardano–BNB bridge and does not involve the Midnight network itself. Midnight’s protocol, validator network, consensus, and core infrastructure remain secure and continue to operate normally.”
They emphasized that this was a third-party bridge infrastructure incident affecting cross-chain transfers between Cardano and BNB Chain. It was not an issue with the NIGHT asset or the Midnight blockchain.
We wanted to provide a brief clarification regarding the recent incident involving NIGHT.
— Midnight Foundation (@midnightfdn) July 21, 2026
The incident is isolated to the Wanchain Cardano–BNB bridge and does not involve the @MidnightNtwrk itself. Midnight's protocol, validator network, consensus, and core infrastructure remain… https://t.co/ZL14x4ImaN
The Foundation said they are in close contact with Wanchain as the investigation continues.
Paul’s Additional Clarification
Crypto analyst Paul added more context to the incident.
He confirmed that the “contract” those ~515 million NIGHT were pulled from is Wanchain’s Cardano-side bridge lock address. This is the custody backing Wanchain-wrapped NIGHT on BNB.
🧵 Follow-up on the $NIGHT selling I flagged earlier and it now lines up with the @midnightfdn update.
— Paul 🇮🇪 (@cwpaulm) July 20, 2026
The "contract" those ~515M $NIGHT were pulled from today is Wanchain's Cardano-side bridge lock address, the custody backing Wanchain-wrapped NIGHT on BNB. Verify it yourself:… pic.twitter.com/SenUghbiML
What the chain shows:
- Approximately 515 million NIGHT – roughly 97% of the bridge’s NIGHT reserves (527 million → 12 million) – were drained from the lock address today.
- Funds were routed through fresh wallets and dumped on Cardano DEXs. Over 290 million NIGHT were sold, pushing the price down roughly 50%.
- This is a bridge-layer incident. The token supply itself is unchanged.
- However, the wrapped NIGHT on BNB is now largely unbacked.
Read also: Here’s Where Cardano (ADA) Price Might Go This Week
What This Means for Midnight Holders
The good news: Midnight’s core protocol was not compromised. The network itself remains secure. This was a third-party bridge issue, not a fundamental flaw in Midnight.
The bad news: The wrapped NIGHT on BNB is now unbacked. Anyone holding wrapped NIGHT on BNB may have significant exposure. The bridge reserves are gone.
The dumped tokens have already been sold on Cardano DEXs. That selling pressure is behind us. The remaining 220+ million NIGHT held by the exploiter could still be sold, but the drainer’s address no longer holds NIGHT after the dump.
The Foundation is working with Wanchain on the investigation. The liquidity gap on the BNB side remains unresolved.
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