Zano Rolls Back Chain After Gateway Address Exploit

Zano has restarted its blockchain at the block height immediately preceding Hard Fork 6, the upgrade that introduced Gateway Addresses. The action effectively rolls the network back about a month after an exploit tied to the feature.

The rollback signals a decisive response to a protocol-level security failure. By reverting to a pre-fork state, the network aims to neutralize the impact of the exploit and restore operational continuity, but the move also raises questions about finality, governance, and the practical limits of decentralized recovery.

Gateway Addresses were introduced as part of Hard Fork 6, and the exploit appears to have exposed a weakness in the upgrade path or the implementation surrounding that feature. In blockchain systems, a rollback of this scope is rare and typically reserved for severe incidents that threaten user funds, chain integrity, or network trust.

For market participants, the immediate focus is less on price action than on confidence in the chain’s security model. A rollback can stabilize short-term operations, but it may also prompt developers, validators, and users to reassess upgrade procedures, incident response controls, and the credibility of future protocol changes.

The broader market backdrop remains risk-on, with the Fear and Greed Index at 74, indicating elevated appetite for speculative assets. Even so, protocol incidents tend to cut through broader sentiment quickly, especially for smaller networks where technical trust is a primary valuation input.