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Ravencoin Drops 17% After Attack on Blockchain and Miners

Because of a critical software bug and an ongoing chain split, Bitvavo and Upbit are pausing RVN transactions, while two mining pools are building a replacement chain.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
Ravencoin Drops 17% After Attack on Blockchain and Miners

Key Takeaways

  • Ravencoin said it found a critical software bug that let attackers abuse the blockchain and could cause multiple days of transactions to disappear.
  • Two mining pools are building a replacement chain starting from block 4,487,775, while exchanges like Bitvavo and Upbit paused RVN deposits and withdrawals.
  • RVN fell 17% in 24 hours to about $0.0029; the project already had a serious vulnerability in 2020 that created extra tokens.

Ravencoin is under heavy pressure after the project said Tuesday that attackers exploited a critical bug in the software. As a result, the blockchain could lose multiple days of transactions, while two mining pools are building a replacement chain starting from before the first faulty block on Friday.

How the Attack Worked

A blockchain is a continuous transaction ledger recorded in blocks by miners. In Ravencoin’s case, it is a proof-of-work network where miners often work together in pools and the version with the most computing power eventually counts as valid. Once the bug was shown on the live network, more invalid blocks started appearing, according to the project, because others seemed to copy the attack.

The first faulty block appeared on August 7 at 15:44 UTC at height 4,487,776. Ravencoin has now released a fix, but it does not undo earlier entries in the chain. The two pools, 2Miners and RavenMiner, are building their version from block 4,487,775, the last block before the exploit.

Impact on Users and Exchanges

For users, the risk is real: a payment that seemed complete over the weekend could disappear from Ravencoin’s accepted history. The project therefore warned exchanges and other services to temporarily pause deposits and withdrawals until the network history settles on one version again.

That advice was quickly followed. Bitvavo suspended RVN deposits and withdrawals as a precaution, pointing to the exploited vulnerability. Upbit also placed an investment warning on RVN in its won, bitcoin, and tether markets and stopped deposits.

Why This Matters More Broadly

Ravencoin is a relatively small altcoin with a market value of about $48 million (€41.5 million) and a 24-hour volume of $10 million (€8.7 million). Especially on networks with limited computing power, a small number of miners can end up having a lot of influence over which version of history ultimately wins. For European crypto investors, this shows how vulnerable some proof-of-work networks can be when an exploit directly affects deposits, withdrawals, and settlement.

RVN fell 17% in 24 hours to about $0.0029 (€0.0025) and is down 77% over the past year. This is not the first time Ravencoin has dealt with a serious security flaw: in 2020, about 31 million extra tokens were created through another vulnerability. That fits into a broader wave of attacks where audits alone turn out not to be enough to cover operational and protocol risks.

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