Hacker Exploits Dogecoin (DOGE) Flaw, Causing 69% of Nodes To Crash

New data from blockchain explorer Blockchair reveals that a hacker took advantage of an exploit in Dogecoin’s (DOGE) blockchain, causing the majority of its nodes to crash.

Earlier this week, a Dogecoin monitoring platform noticed that the number of DOGE nodes dipped from 647 to just 205, a decrease of about 69%.

“Our monitoring made us aware that the vulnerability appears to have been exploited, and almost 69% of the Dogecoin network has crashed. Blockchair shows the number of public nodes. Before, it was 647, and at the time of writing it is just 205.”

However, according to Blockchair, some DOGE nodes have since recovered as there are currently 331 active nodes around the world at time of writing.

In a recent thread on the social media platform X, Bitcoin (BTC) sidechain developer Andreas Kohl says that he was the one who took down most of the DOGE network using an old laptop.

“I used a publicly disclosed vulnerability [by BTC developer Tobias Ruck] to take down 69% of the Dogecoin network from an old thinkpad in rural El Salvador.”

According to Kohl, most DOGE users didn’t even notice.

“Only nodes that weren’t on the latest version were affected – which was the majority of the network, excluding CEXs (centralized exchanges) and most other major custodians – hence why most doge users never noticed, not that many understand self-custody.”

News of the exploit had little impact on the price of DOGE as the meme asset is trading for $0.413 at time of writing, a 4.7% decrease during the last 24 hours.

Generated Image: Midjourney