Core DAO reported that some validators received excess CORE rewards beyond the protocol's intended levels, triggering transfer restrictions at major cryptocurrency exchanges. Coinbase paused CORE sends and receives starting at 04:41 UTC on August 31, while LBank suspended deposits at 05:00 UTC the same day. The exchanges cited the issue in taking action, though the exact connection between the reward anomaly and their restrictions remains unconfirmed.
The project said it had identified the root cause and was developing mitigations, adding that user assets and network security remained unaffected. However, Core DAO has not disclosed the amount of excess CORE distributed, which validators were involved, or the specific technical cause of the failure.
The missing details create uncertainty about the token's total supply. Core DAO's tokenomics specify a fixed supply of 2.1 billion CORE tokens, with 839.9 million allocated to node mining over 81 years. Since validator rewards normally include newly minted tokens, the unresolved question is whether the anomaly accelerated scheduled rewards or added issuance outside the planned distribution path.
According to Core DAO's documentation, validator compensation combines newly minted block rewards with transaction fees, calculated at the end of each reward round. The malfunction occurred within this regular issuance process rather than affecting user balances or custody systems, the project stated.
Coinbase reported that buys, sells, conversions, and fiat transactions remained unaffected, with its status page serving as the official channel for updates. LBank's notice did not specify a withdrawal or trading suspension and provided no timeline for restoring deposit functionality. The project promised a postmortem once the issue is contained.
