Zano Exploiter Mints $20M in Unauthorized Coins Before Rollback

Zano has detailed the mechanics of its recent exploit, which involved an attacker minting 36.9 million unauthorized ZANO and Freedom Dollar (fUSD) tokens before the project rolled back roughly a month of blockchain history.

The attack began on August 29 with the first unauthorized minting of approximately 18.4 million ZANO, followed by another 18.4 million ZANO on September 25.

The attacker also used the same method to mint fUSD tokens, some of which entered the Zano ecosystem.

Zano chose to roll back its chain due to concerns that the unauthorized coins could not be reliably distinguished from legitimate outputs, and would have remained spendable.