Iron Fish is a privacy-focused public blockchain founded in 2019, with its mainnet launching in 2023. wIRON is the version of its coin bridged to Base, carried over by a bridge called ChainPort.
On October 27, it initiated 14 mints, and each one passed its own signature verification. The proof the chain gave it said these IRON tokens really existed and hadn’t been spent, so it minted an equal amount of wIRON as instructed.
The problem was with that proof. Iron Fish’s on-chain double-spend prevention marker was calculated incorrectly, so the claim that the tokens “hadn’t been spent” was itself false. The bug came from a code commit in early 2019, when the project had just been founded. Internal and external auditors reviewed the code over the next seven years, but no one caught it.
The bridge verifies whether the proof is authentic; it can’t verify whether the assets behind the proof actually exist. Switching to another bridge would make no difference.
On October 27 alone, 2.98 billion wIRON were minted on Base. Only 76.98 million IRON exist on the entire chain, so the amount minted was 38.7 times the total supply of genuine tokens.
That day, two new wallets sold all of the minted tokens, cashing out $197,400 in 14 hours.
212 addresses burned 192 million wIRON to claim real IRON. But there are only 76.98 million IRON on the whole chain, so less than 40% of those 192 million can be redeemed.
The total supply of wIRON is now 2.788 billion. Of the 2.98 billion minted, 192 million were burned for redemption, leaving the rest still circulating.
Across 23 trading pairs, the pools hold a combined $3,137, and 24-hour trading volume is $308.
On October 28, the team warned that wIRON had been abnormally overminted and told people not to buy it. On October 31, it published its investigation findings: the root cause was an accounting error in the chain itself. It then submitted a patch and closed the archived code repository. The patch does not provide a way to upgrade the existing chain.
Today’s announcement didn’t say a word about a compensation plan. Late on October 30, a wIRON holder asked on X whether redemption was possible and whether they should hold or leave. No response was seen.
wIRON is on Base. It’s not discounted IRON now; it’s an IOU. A discount can recover, but an IOU can’t. To redeem, you’re behind 212 addresses in the queue.
IRON is this chain’s native coin. If the chain is shutting down, it’s only a matter of time before exchanges delist its trading pairs. Try withdrawing once now; don’t wait for an announcement. This asset currently has a market cap of $1.05 million and 24-hour trading volume of $23,000.
On October 27, it initiated 14 mints, and each one passed its own signature verification. The proof the chain gave it said these IRON tokens really existed and hadn’t been spent, so it minted an equal amount of wIRON as instructed.
The problem was with that proof. Iron Fish’s on-chain double-spend prevention marker was calculated incorrectly, so the claim that the tokens “hadn’t been spent” was itself false. The bug came from a code commit in early 2019, when the project had just been founded. Internal and external auditors reviewed the code over the next seven years, but no one caught it.
The bridge verifies whether the proof is authentic; it can’t verify whether the assets behind the proof actually exist. Switching to another bridge would make no difference.
On October 27 alone, 2.98 billion wIRON were minted on Base. Only 76.98 million IRON exist on the entire chain, so the amount minted was 38.7 times the total supply of genuine tokens.
That day, two new wallets sold all of the minted tokens, cashing out $197,400 in 14 hours.
212 addresses burned 192 million wIRON to claim real IRON. But there are only 76.98 million IRON on the whole chain, so less than 40% of those 192 million can be redeemed.
The total supply of wIRON is now 2.788 billion. Of the 2.98 billion minted, 192 million were burned for redemption, leaving the rest still circulating.
Across 23 trading pairs, the pools hold a combined $3,137, and 24-hour trading volume is $308.
On October 28, the team warned that wIRON had been abnormally overminted and told people not to buy it. On October 31, it published its investigation findings: the root cause was an accounting error in the chain itself. It then submitted a patch and closed the archived code repository. The patch does not provide a way to upgrade the existing chain.
Today’s announcement didn’t say a word about a compensation plan. Late on October 30, a wIRON holder asked on X whether redemption was possible and whether they should hold or leave. No response was seen.
wIRON is on Base. It’s not discounted IRON now; it’s an IOU. A discount can recover, but an IOU can’t. To redeem, you’re behind 212 addresses in the queue.
IRON is this chain’s native coin. If the chain is shutting down, it’s only a matter of time before exchanges delist its trading pairs. Try withdrawing once now; don’t wait for an announcement. This asset currently has a market cap of $1.05 million and 24-hour trading volume of $23,000.