Zilliqa Exchange Partner Cold Wallet Hack (July 2026)
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anchored·3BVGYZ…oW5ZSummary
On July 20, 2026, Zilliqa confirmed that ZIL tokens were stolen from a cold wallet held by an unnamed centralized exchange partner, triggering an emergency suspension of ZIL deposits and withdrawals across multiple exchanges. Subsequent investigation revealed the root cause to be a cryptographic flaw in the Zilliqa Ledger hardware wallet application present across all versions since 2019, which allowed attackers to reconstruct private keys from as few as five on-chain native signatures. Approximately 683,130,969.66 ZIL was reported stolen; Zilliqa suspended native legacy transactions entirely and announced plans to migrate all users to the Zilliqa EVM environment.
Connected Entities
5 entities · 59 linked investigations- Zilliqa→mentioned with→Bitget(65%)
- Zilliqa Exchange Partner Cold Wallet Hack (July 2026)→mentioned with→Zilliqa(80%)
- Zilliqa Exchange Partner Cold Wallet Hack (July 2026)→mentioned with→KuCoin(70%)
- Zilliqa Exchange Partner Cold Wallet Hack (July 2026)→mentioned with→Upbit(70%)
- Zilliqa Exchange Partner Cold Wallet Hack (July 2026)→mentioned with→Bitget(70%)
Connected Through
4 shared actors · 154 investigationsDistinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.
- ♦KuCointoken
- □Bitgetorganization
- □Upbitorganization
- □Zilliqaorganizationalso in
2 submissions awaiting moderator review.
Timeline(7 events)
2019
Zilliqa Ledger hardware wallet application released, containing a cryptographic flaw in Schnorr signature nonce generation that would persist undetected for over six years across all subsequent versions.
CryptoTimes / Zilliqa Official19 July 2026
Suspicious on-chain activity consistent with active exploitation of the Ledger application flaw detected.
crypto.news20 July 2026
Zilliqa publicly confirmed ZIL tokens stolen from an unnamed exchange partner's cold wallet and issued an emergency request to all CEXs to suspend ZIL deposits and withdrawals. Coinone halted services at 19:05 KST; KuCoin and Bitget also suspended ZIL services. ZIL hit an all-time low of $0.002441 and declined approximately 15% before partial recovery.
CryptoTimes / Cryptopolitan / KuCoin21 July 2026
Zilliqa isolated the root cause as a cryptographic flaw in the Zilliqa Ledger application rather than exchange operational failure. Zilliqa suspended all native (non-EVM) ZIL transactions as a protective measure.
crypto.news / CryptoTimes22 July 2026
Zilliqa publicly disclosed the Ledger application flaw — a nonce generation bug causing Schnorr signature weaknesses exploitable after approximately five native transactions. Upbit designated ZIL as a cautionary asset across KRW and BTC markets, suspended deposits and withdrawals, and warned of possible delisting pending an August review.
CryptoTimes / BeInCrypto / BigGo Finance24 July 2026
Zilliqa published an official incident status page at zilliqa.com/ledger-incident/ disclosing a stolen amount of approximately 683,130,969.66 ZIL and providing guidance on affected users and recommended actions.
Zilliqa Official31 July 2026
Zilliqa announced a recovery and transition plan: the Zilliqa EVM environment to become the sole production network, legacy ZIL1 chain to be retired, and migration tools to be provided to all legacy wallet holders. Recovery program ownership-verification methodology still being designed.
Zilliqa OfficialDecision Log
- slot 445506039 · hash GHcT4693TtUe4VcSDiAJzd5cAbsMVaS3aoYBc5MKY9hs
- slot 443521056 · hash Gwf7Qe4QaFJ8bTMbWQJ218ohwvexeFLakYatzEXc6vBG
- slot 443521048 · hash 3ECTgBEa9TYAxEChSeo8XVogxaGkcxeuAjZNozNPM1KG
- slot 443503575 · hash 5eoonzd7CJNSiaJyc999SsJ8ALcZqNBcL2EJMUnVr8Jo
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (4 decisions). 16 of 17 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 8/2/2026, 12:27:33 PM
last updated: 8/26/2026, 12:10:49 PM
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