Core DAO announces emergency hard fork
Core DAO is coordinating an emergency hard fork after validators claimed more CORE rewards than the blockchain intended to issue. In an update, Core said the incident had been contained and that "malicious validators" could no longer draw excess rewards. It said the fork would be a forward upgrade and would not roll back the network or reverse any previously confirmed transactions.
This followed an earlier status update on Monday, in which Core said a small number of validators had accrued rewards significantly above the protocol's intended issuance. It said the incident was limited to reward issuance and that user assets remained safe, adding that it would publish a technical postmortem.
Exchanges restrict CORE transfers
Several exchanges restricted CORE transfers around the time of the incident. Coinbase paused sends and receives on the Core network, while Bithumb and Coinone suspended deposits and withdrawals, citing suspected or confirmed security concerns. Bitget also suspended CORE deposits and withdrawals, citing wallet maintenance, while LBank suspended deposits because of what it described as the project's requirements.
Coinbase opened its Core DAO incident at 04:41 UTC on Aug. 31, before Core's 05:24 UTC public statement. At 17:38 UTC, the exchange's status feed still listed the incident as investigating, with CORE sends and receives paused. Coinbase said buys, sells, conversions and fiat transactions were unaffected. Its public status page remained the venue's official channel for further updates.
LBank separately suspended CORE deposits at 05:00 UTC, saying the action was due to the project's requirements. Its notice did not describe a withdrawal or trading suspension and gave no restoration time. A translated version gives the equivalent time of 06:00 UTC+1 and says the English notice governs any discrepancy.
The official statements leave the relationship between the reward anomaly and the exchange actions unconfirmed. The restrictions also differ: Coinbase limited sends and receives, while LBank's notice covered deposits only.
Unanswered questions
Core has not disclosed how much CORE was issued, how long the activity continued, or whether any of the additional tokens entered circulation. It also has not explained the vulnerability that enabled the validators to obtain the rewards. However, Core said it would publish a technical postmortem.
Core DAO said it had identified the root cause and was working on mitigations. It said user assets were safe. It described the incident as limited to reward issuance and said network security and custody were unaffected. Core did not disclose the amount of excess CORE, the validators or reward rounds involved, or the technical cause.
The missing amount is central because Core DAO validator rewards normally include newly minted tokens. The disclosure leaves unresolved whether the anomaly accelerated rewards already scheduled for later distribution or added issuance outside the project's planned path.
Reward mechanics
Core's reward documentation says validator compensation combines newly minted CORE block rewards with transaction fees and is calculated at the end of each round. Its validator guide says 90% of rewards go to validators and their delegators, while 10% goes to the System Reward Contract.
Cointelegraph contacted Core for further information but had not received a response by publication.