aelf Restores Public Nodes After Week‑Long Outage, Staking Rewards Lost

aelf, the blockchain platform that operates the AELF MainChain and the tDVV dAppChain, announced the restoration of public node access and several core services following a week‑long halt caused by malicious smart‑contract activity.

Service restoration

On September 14 the project reported that public nodes, the aelfscan explorer, FairyVault transfers, Awaken trading, Forest NFT browsing, and the TMRW DAO staking interface were available again. The following day the MainChain and tDVV status endpoints showed advancing block heights, though transaction submission was not confirmed during the checks.

Exchange activity remains uneven

Exchange deposits and withdrawals are resuming on a venue‑by‑venue basis. Bithumb scheduled ELF deposits and withdrawals to restart on September 14 at 14:00 KST. MEXC announced a September 5 resumption with new deposit addresses, while INDODAX’s notice from September 2 still listed deposits and withdrawals as closed, indicating users should verify current status on each platform.

Staking impact

The production pause meant no network staking rewards were generated during the approximately one‑week outage. Restoring the TMRW DAO interface does not create retroactive rewards; users cannot claim any rewards for the halted period.

Investigation findings

The August 26 update identified 155 transactions linked to the malicious activity (127 on AELF, 28 on tDVV) and five unique .NET assemblies capable of interacting with host systems and node credentials. The review found no unauthorized transfers of ordinary users’ assets or exposure of user wallet keys, though it did not rule out unresolved node or infrastructure credential exposure. A full technical appendix and independent root‑cause assessment have not yet been published.

Next steps

aelf indicated that a comprehensive post‑incident review and independent audit will be released once remaining work is completed. Until then, restored services represent operational progress rather than a final security clearance.