Core DAO urgently hard forks due to validators excessively claiming rewards

Core DAO is coordinating an emergency hard fork due to some validators receiving CORE rewards that exceeded the protocol's expected issuance. Core stated in an update that the situation has been brought under control, and "malicious validators" can no longer claim excess rewards. This fork is a forward upgrade and will not roll back the network or revoke any confirmed transactions.

Previously, Core indicated in a status update on Monday that the rewards accumulated by a small number of validators were significantly higher than the protocol's expected issuance. The incident was limited to the reward distribution phase, user assets remain secure, and they promised to release a technical review report. Following the incident, several exchanges restricted CORE transfers: Coinbase suspended deposits and withdrawals on the Core network, Bithumb and Coinone suspended deposits and withdrawals, Bitget suspended deposits and withdrawals citing wallet maintenance, and LBank suspended deposits at the request of the project team.

Core has not disclosed the amount of excess issued CORE, the duration of the activity, or whether additional tokens have entered circulation, nor have they provided details on the vulnerabilities that allowed validators to receive rewards. Cointelegraph reached out to Core for further information but had not received a response by the time of publication.