MultiversX is facing a formal trading review at South Korean crypto exchange Upbit after a security incident caused the network to stop progressing.
Upbit placed EGLD/KRW, EGLD/BTC and EGLD/USDT under trading caution on Sept. 21. The exchange said the unresolved security issue could potentially cause losses for users.
Upbit had already suspended EGLD deposits and withdrawals on Sept. 19. When transfers eventually resume, withdrawals are expected to return first, while deposits will require a separate announcement.
The warning came after MultiversX confirmed that an attacker attempted to exploit a virtual-machine-level atomicity issue on its mainnet. The attempt resulted in invalid state changes, forcing developers to stop network progression while they worked on a fix.
The MultiversX team prepared a software update for testing through a shadow fork. This allows developers to test the fix under conditions similar to the live network before deploying it.
The project said the fix would be deployed only after successful testing and would require coordination with validators, exchanges and infrastructure providers. No firm deadline for restarting normal network activity was given in the public updates.
Security tracker SlowMist also recorded the incident as an attempted VM-level atomicity exploit involving invalid on-chain state changes. No confirmed loss amount was listed in its public database.
Several other exchanges also restricted EGLD transfers following the incident.
Bithumb suspended EGLD deposits and withdrawals on Sept. 19 after MultiversX block production stopped. The exchange said services would remain suspended until network stability was confirmed.
Kraken took a different approach by placing EGLD trading pairs into cancel-only mode. Users could cancel existing orders, but new trades were not allowed. Deposits and withdrawals also remained unavailable.
Coinbase reported delays with EGLD sends and receives because of the MultiversX network issue, while buying, selling and fiat services remained available.
MultiversX advised users not to submit or rebroadcast transactions. It also warned users against moving EGLD or ESDT tokens through exchange deposits, withdrawals or cross-chain bridges until the network receives an official all-clear.
Upbit’s trading caution does not immediately mean that EGLD will be removed from the exchange. The exchange will review whether the security concerns have been resolved before deciding whether to end the warning, extend the review or terminate trading support.
Upbit said its review period runs from Sept. 21 through the fourth week of October, with Oct. 19-23 set as the expected decision period. The review can be extended if more investigation is needed.
EGLD’s price also weakened as the security issue and exchange restrictions developed. According to the reported CoinGecko data, EGLD closed at $4.14 on Sept. 18, fell to $3.87 on Sept. 19 and then to $3.78 on Sept. 20. That was about an 8.7% decline from the Sept. 18 close.
Trading volume also increased during the disruption, reaching about $10.18 million on Sept. 20 compared with roughly $3.35 million on Sept. 18.
The price decline happened at the same time as the security incident and exchange restrictions, although the market data alone cannot prove that the exploit attempt caused the entire move.
The incident came shortly after MultiversX activated its Supernova mainnet upgrade, which reduced targeted block time and shortened cross-shard settlement. However, MultiversX has not linked the security incident to the Supernova upgrade, so the two events should not be treated as connected without further technical evidence.
MultiversX said its engineers are working on a recovery process designed to preserve finalized legitimate transactions while correcting the invalid state changes connected to the incident.
The project has not yet released full details about the recovery process or identified the exact transactions, contracts or account states that need correction.
MultiversX also said several services were experiencing degraded performance during the response, while other services remained operational. The team plans to publish a full technical report after the investigation and recovery process are completed.
For now, EGLD transfers remain restricted across several exchanges, while Upbit continues its review and the MultiversX team works on restoring normal network operations.
