Litecoin Confirms Zero-Day Bug Caused 13-Block Reorg, Network Patched and Stable

Key Takeaways:

• Litecoin confirmed a zero-day bug deed large mining pools connected April 25, 2026, enabling invalid MWEB transactions via non-updated nodes.
• A 13-block reorg reversed the invalid transactions; Litecoin states each valid transactions are harmless and the bug is afloat patched.
• NEAR Intents had reported $600K successful exposure, but existent losses whitethorn beryllium little present that Litecoin confirms the invalid transactions were wiped.

Litecoin Reorg Issues

According to the Litecoin team, non-updated mining nodes processed an invalid MWEB transaction that allowed coins to beryllium pegged retired to third-party decentralized exchange ( DEX) platforms. The bug gave attackers a way to propulsion fraudulent transactions done nodes that had not applied caller updates.

Litecoin X station connected the taxable connected April 25, 2026.

The 13-block reorg was the network’s effect to that exploit. It reversed the invalid transactions and prevented them from being included successful the main chain. The Litecoin squad confirmed that each valid transactions during that play stay unaffected.

The squad insists the bug has since been afloat patched. The Litecoin web is operating usually arsenic of the team’s connection posted astatine 4:22 p.m. ET connected April 25.

Aurora Labs CEO Alex Shevchenko and onchain expert Zacodil had flagged the reorg earlier successful the day, with observers initially interpreting the 13-block reorganization arsenic a classical 51% attack. Onchain timestamps showed those blocks took much than 3 hours to generate, compared to the mean people of astir 32 minutes for 13 blocks astatine Litecoin’s 2.5-minute artifact time.

The authoritative Litecoin connection reframes what happened. The reorg was allegedly not attackers successfully rewriting past for profit. It was the web correcting a bug-driven exploit by discarding the invalid chain.

Reddit user asking astir a double-spend during the Litecoin reorg connected April 25 connected the r/litecoin subreddit.

NEAR Intents had primitively reported astir $600,000 successful exposure, saying its squad would screen immoderate idiosyncratic losses. With Litecoin confirming the invalid transactions were reversed and wiped from the main chain, the existent settled losses whitethorn beryllium importantly little than initially reported. NEAR Intents has not yet issued a follow-up connection addressing the updated picture.

Other cross-chain protocols that judge LTC and paused enactment successful effect to the incidental are besides expected to reassess their vulnerability present that the Litecoin squad has clarified the series of events.

To many, the incidental highlights a existent vulnerability successful proof-of-work networks that tally nodes connected older bundle versions. Non-updated nodes processed a transaction they should person rejected, which gave the MWEB exploit its opening.

“This isn’t an isolated incident. There person been galore of these rollback-and-double-spend attacks against Proof-of-Work-alone blockchains some years agone and recently, including precocious against Monero and Grin,” Zcash laminitis Zooko Wilcox wrote connected Saturday.

This communicative is inactive developing.