Cardano Fork Crisis Exposes Critical Vulnerability and Shakes Trust

For several hours, the Cardano blockchain essentially existed in duplicate. Alongside the “healthy” version, there was a “poisoned” network serving as the basis for ADA. The serious Cardano incident from Friday is now being investigated.

On Friday, November 21st, Cardano suffered its most serious technological setback. At midday, the Cardano organization Intersect announced via X that the mainnet was experiencing “technical problems.” In fact, the ADA blockchain was running in two versions at that point, only one of which was legitimate—the original.

It took approximately ten hours before Intersect could announce via X that the situation was under control. What happened, and what are the consequences of this incident, which narrowly avoided disaster for Cardano?

Cardano user takes responsibility for blockchain fork

X-user Homer J claimed responsibility for the Cardano shock. He stated that he had intended to conduct a test and then realized it immediately impacted the ADA blockchain. Intersect explains in a more detailed report that a “targeted anomaly” split the network in two: a “poisoned” and a “healthy” version.

Homer J operates an ADA network point and apparently executed a transaction from there that addressed a security vulnerability that had existed since 2022. As a result, Cardano network points automatically chose a version of the blockchain based on the software used, with Intersect reporting that the majority opted for the “poisoned” version.

FBI alerted by Cardano founder Hoskinson regarding blockchain attack

Cryptocurrency exchanges subsequently paused ADA deposits and withdrawals, and the price plummeted by ten percent. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson wrote on X that the FBI had been notified. He suggested that so-called “double transactions” may have occurred, disrupting DeFi on Cardano. Hoskinson concluded that it would take weeks to clean up the “mess” and even longer to repair the damage to Cardano’s brand and reputation. Homer J, for his part, insisted that his actions were not motivated by financial gain and apologized repeatedly.

It remains unclear to what extent the surprising and unintentional fork of the Cardano blockchain had direct financial consequences for users. Within the crypto community , there is disagreement with Hoskinson’s decision to involve law enforcement. After all, Homer J. revealed a serious security issue, and Cardano should respond more decisively, according to various posts on X.

Conclusion: Loss of trust in Cardano Blockchain and ADA

Cardano has always prided itself on the fact that its blockchain has operated without interruption or other incidents since its launch in 2017. That reputation is now shattered, even though the “double” blockchain apparently didn’t cause a direct financial disaster. The ADA network points rolled out updates, and the situation now seems to be technologically resolved.

But experts are also clear: if the targeted attack had been carried out by criminals, the financial damage would now be under discussion. Cardano appears to have escaped relatively unscathed, but its image has been damaged. Nearly $15 billion in market capitalization stands behind ADA, securing Cardano a place among the top ten cryptocurrencies – but its technological foundation has revealed a critical vulnerability.

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(Featured image by Sajad Nori via Unsplash)

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