The Elastos Smart Chain has been paused since July 13, 2026, when a cross-chain exploit created ELA on ESC without the matching reserve on the Elastos main chain.
Release v0.2.8 brings ESC back online, freezes the affected accounts, and removes the recoverable unbacked supply.
Ordinary ELA holders are not affected and do not need to take any action.
What happened
ELA on ESC is backed one for one by ELA held in the cross-chain reserve on the main chain. Each ELA issued on ESC should have an equal amount held behind it.
The exploit broke that link and created approximately 6,034,234 ELA on ESC without the matching reserve.
ESC was paused at block 37,617,146 to stop the affected funds from moving while the team traced them and prepared the fix.
The full incident timeline and fund status are available in the July 15 Elastos Security Notice.
Today
ESC resumes from block 37,617,147.
At that block, the accounts holding the unbacked ELA are frozen. The network will reject transactions sent from those accounts, so the affected funds cannot move after block production resumes.
At block 37,634,427, roughly 24 hours later, ESC will burn exactly: 4,931,233.97… ELA
This is the unbacked ELA still held in the identified ESC wallets. The remaining amount entered bridge contracts or third-party liquidity and is being handled separately.
The 24-hour gap gives node operators time to install v0.2.8 and confirm that their nodes are following the upgraded chain. It also gives validators time to stop before the burn block if anything unexpected happens.
Only accounts linked to the exploit are frozen or debited. Normal ELA balances remain unchanged.
Node operators
Every ESC node must run v0.2.8 before block 37,634,427.
Older nodes will stop following the upgraded chain at the burn block. They may do this without showing a clear error, so operators should check their latest block after the burn.
Release files and checksums:
Confirm the installed version is: 1.9.7.0-v1.12.0-v0.2.8
Replacing the binary does not update a node process that is already running. Restart the ESC node after installing the new version.
Exchanges, and indexers
The burn will not create a transaction, receipt, or event log. It will be applied directly by ESC consensus.
Services that calculate balances or total supply only from transaction history will miss it. They may continue running while showing incorrect figures from block 37,634,427 onward.
After the burn block, services should:
- Read balances directly from chain state
- Recalculate ESC total supply
- Confirm their node is following v0.2.8
- Reconcile balances before restoring normal service
Exchanges should keep ELA deposits and withdrawals on ESC suspended until the burn has completed and their records match the corrected chain state.
What follows
Separate work is being prepared for the 1,000,000 ELA and 100,000 ELA that entered ShadowTokens bridge contracts.
The funds moved by the exploit on the Elastos main chain remain frozen and cannot be spent.
Recovering those funds requires a main-chain change rather than an ESC release. A proposal to recover them will be presented to the community through the Elastos DAO.
