TLDR
- MANTRA Chain resumed block production at 5:30 a.m. UTC on Aug. 22 after a roughly 30-hour outage
- A vulnerability in its Cosmos-EVM module was exploited, halting all transactions, staking, and bridge activity
- Version 8.4.0 patched the flaw and added extra security protections before validators restarted the network
- Two MANTRA-managed wallets were affected, but user funds were not exploited
- MANTRA’s token dropped about 18.5% to a record low during the incident, with trading volume up nearly 600%
MANTRA Chain is back online after developers patched a vulnerability in its Cosmos-EVM module that knocked the blockchain offline for about 30 hours.
MANTRA Chain is producing blocks again.
The vulnerability in the Cosmos-EVM module has been fixed, the network has resumed, and no user funds were affected.
Thank you to everyone for your patience throughout the incident.
Review the full history of incident status updates… pic.twitter.com/IDVpw7H7Tp
— MANTRA | The EVM L1 for RWAs (@MANTRA_Chain) August 22, 2026
Block production resumed at roughly 5:30 a.m. UTC on Aug. 22, after the team deployed version 8.4.0 of its software to fix the flaw and add new security protections.
The incident began late on Aug. 20, when MANTRA detected an attacker exploiting a vulnerability in an upstream software dependency. Developers responded by halting the mainnet entirely.
The shutdown froze all transactions, staking operations, bridges, and inter-blockchain communication relays. Some exchanges also paused deposits and withdrawals connected to the network.
Public endpoints, validator services, and bridge infrastructure all went offline during the halt.
What Happened During the Attack
MANTRA traced the vulnerability to its Cosmos-EVM module. The activity affected two wallet addresses before developers contained the threat.
Both addresses were later identified as MANTRA-managed wallets. The project said there was no sign that user, exchange, or partner funds were directly affected.
“No user funds were exploited,” MANTRA said in a post-incident update.
MANTRA has not disclosed what activity occurred in those two wallets, how much value was involved, or whether any assets left the addresses. A full technical report is expected in the coming days.
Before restarting, developers took a complete snapshot of the blockchain at block 17,449,398, where the network had stopped. The team then reviewed known attack paths before building and testing the patch.
Version 8.4.0 was first tested on the DuKong testnet, then validated in an internal environment that replicated the mainnet state. Multiple upgrade rehearsals were completed before validators received the restart signal.
MANTRA-operated validators were upgraded first, followed by partners, node operators, RPC services, and archive nodes. User balances were unchanged throughout, and no blockchain rollback occurred.
Token Price and Market Reaction
During the incident, the MANTRA token fell from around $0.005060 to a record low of $0.004126, a drop of about 18.5%. The low came at roughly 11:10 p.m. UTC on Aug. 20, minutes before the network’s last recorded block.
Trading volume jumped nearly 600% to around $24 million during the initial market reaction. MANTRA has not linked the price drop to the attack.
The DuKong testnet remained offline after the mainnet returned. MANTRA said work to restore it would continue over the next several days.
A complete post-incident report covering the Cosmos-EVM vulnerability and the network’s response is expected to be released soon.
