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Midnight token rebounds 19% after Wanchain bridge hack, Hoskinson calls for ZK revamp
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Midnight's NIGHT token staged a sharp recovery after crashing to an all-time low following a bridge exploit earlier this week, with Charles Hoskinson using the incident to make a broader case for rethinking crypto security from the ground up. The Wanchain bridge exploit on Monday drained 290 million NIGHT tokens, sending the price down roughly 43% to an all-time low before a partial recovery brought it back nearly 19% within 24 hours. Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano and a core developer of Midnight, pushed back at coverage that focused only on the crash, posting on X: 'Magically, they forget to mention the rebound.'
The exploit targeted the Wanchain bridge on the Binance-Cardano corridor, a legacy cross-chain infrastructure that facilitates token transfers between the two networks. Bridge hacks have been one of crypto's most persistent and costly attack vectors for years, with billions of dollars drained through similar exploits. Notable attacks include the Ronin, Wormhole, and Nomad incidents, which collectively lost over $1.5 billion, typically targeting smart contracts or multisig setups.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Hoskinson described the hack as a 'case of the Mondays' but acknowledged its seriousness in the broader context. He attributed the rising frequency of such attacks to AI-powered exploit discovery, which he said is accelerating vulnerabilities across all software, not just crypto. 'All software is under this enormous assault,' he stated, pointing to a surge in Linux kernel vulnerabilities as evidence of the trend.
Hoskinson was direct about the limitations of even well-built security measures, comparing them to being '90% resistant to a deadly disease.' He argued that legacy bridge architecture built by third parties is inherently flawed, leaving systems exposed to repeated attacks. The incident underscores the urgent need for the industry to move beyond trust-dependent infrastructure, he said.
Hoskinson advocated for zero-knowledge systems like Midnight as the long-term fix, replacing reliance on bridge operators and multisignature schemes with cryptographic proofs. Zero-knowledge proofs allow transactions to be verified without revealing underlying data, eliminating the need for trusted intermediaries. He argued that such systems fundamentally redesign security by removing the trust assumptions that attackers exploit.
The NIGHT token's rebound, trading around $0.022 at the time of reporting, suggests some market resilience, but the broader implications for cross-chain security remain pressing. As AI accelerates exploit discovery, the crypto industry faces mounting pressure to adopt more robust, trustless architectures. Hoskinson's call for a Zero-Knowledge revamp reflects a growing consensus that incremental fixes are insufficient against evolving threats.
