NIGHT 價格為何暴跌？Midnight 拋售背後的跨鏈事件與流動性衝擊

Overview

NIGHT has become one of the most attention-grabbing assets in the crypto market today in terms of decline, not due to a synchronized market downturn, but because of an unexpected incident involving the Wanchain cross-chain bridge. According to CoinGecko's Midnight price data, as of the time of writing on July 21, 2026, NIGHT has dropped approximately 33% in the past 24 hours, hitting an all-time low of around $0.01524. Meanwhile, trading volume has increased nearly sevenfold compared to the previous day, indicating that the price drop is accompanied by real and concentrated selling activity.

The core clues currently available to the market indicate that approximately 515 million NIGHT tokens were reportedly moved from Wanchain's locked bridge address on the Cardano side. This address was originally used to support the Wanchain-wrapped version of NIGHT on the BNB Chain. The subsequent large-scale on-chain selling quickly shifted market concerns from bridge security to liquidity shock and asset collateral integrity.

The Midnight Foundation has stated in an official statement that the incident is currently viewed as an isolated problem with the Wanchain Cardano-to-BNB bridge path, with no evidence suggesting the Midnight network itself is affected.

Key Points

NIGHT dropped approximately 33% in 24 hours, with the price falling to around $0.0179, setting a new all-time low.

Approximately 515 million NIGHT were reported moved from Wanchain's Cardano-side bridge lock-up address, followed by concentrated on-chain selling.

These tokens account for about 3.1% of the current circulating supply, sufficient to cause a noticeable impact on spot liquidity and order books.

The Midnight Foundation has indicated that the incident currently only involves an external bridge path, with no evidence that the Midnight protocol, mainnet, or native token mechanism itself has been attacked.

The key focus going forward is not just whether the price can rebound, but the status of bridged asset collateral, the destination of the funds, progress on asset freezing or recovery, and whether Wanchain will release a complete forensic report.

NIGHT Hits New All-Time Low, Significantly Diverging from the Broader Market

According to CoinMarketCap's NIGHT real-time data, NIGHT is trading at approximately $0.0179 at the time of writing, with a 24-hour decline of nearly 33% and a circulating market cap of around $297 million. CoinGecko recorded a 24-hour price range of approximately $0.01524 to $0.02682 over the same period, meaning the token experienced a maximum drawdown of over 40% from its daily high to low.

The change in trading volume is more noteworthy than the decline itself. CoinGecko shows that NIGHT's 24-hour trading volume has risen to approximately $90 million, an increase of nearly seven times compared to the previous day. CoinMarketCap's statistics exceed $120 million. Differences exist between platforms due to exchange coverage and calculation methods, but the direction is consistent: this decline is not a random fluctuation in a low-volume environment, but a significant repricing of a large amount of tokens in a short period.

More importantly, NIGHT's performance ran counter to the broader market direction at the time. The same market snapshot on CoinMarketCap shows Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano all in a state of increase. This makes it difficult to attribute NIGHT's abnormal performance to a decline in overall market risk appetite, a Bitcoin pullback, or a broad altcoin sell-off. The price impact is more consistent with a project-specific event.

Wanchain Bridge Incident Triggers Immediate Selling Pressure

Approximately 515 Million NIGHT Leave Bridge Lock-Up Address

Public on-chain observations indicate that approximately 515 million NIGHT were moved from Wanchain's Cardano-side bridge lock-up address. This address serves a custodial function, supporting the corresponding Wanchain-wrapped NIGHT on the BNB Chain. CoinGecko subsequently summarized the market anomaly as assets being moved from the bridge's lock-up address, followed by large-scale on-chain selling.

Based on CoinMarketCap's reported circulating supply of approximately 16.607 billion tokens, 515 million NIGHT represents about 3.1% of the current circulating supply. Relative to the total supply of 24 billion tokens listed on the Midnight official token page, this amounts to approximately 2.15%.

Calculated at the day's high of $0.02682, the nominal value is close to $13.8 million. This figure does not imply that the relevant address completed the sale at this price, but it suffices to explain why a concentrated transfer and sale could penetrate multiple price levels.

Bridge Collateral Integrity Becomes Market Focus

The WanBridge official page describes its product as a non-custodial cross-chain bridge connecting EVM and non-EVM networks. This type of bridge typically requires locking native assets on the source chain and issuing corresponding wrapped assets on the target chain. As long as the locked assets and wrapped assets are consistent, the target chain tokens have verifiable collateral backing.

Therefore, the market's real concern is not just that native NIGHT is being sold, but whether the moved assets previously served as collateral for the wrapped NIGHT on the BNB Chain.

If an unauthorized transfer of locked assets occurs, and the corresponding assets on the target chain are not simultaneously burned or frozen, holders could face risks of insufficient collateral, redemption restrictions, or price de-pegging.

As of the time of writing, no complete public forensic report has been released confirming the entry point of the incident, responsible addresses, actual losses, the status of wrapped asset liabilities, or a fund recovery plan. Therefore, not all on-chain transfers can be directly equated with final losses.

Why NIGHT's Selling Pressure Was Rapidly Amplified

Liquidity Depth Unable to Absorb Concentrated Supply

A token's market capitalization does not equal the buying power the market can instantly absorb. Exchange data from CoinGecko indicates that while NIGHT trades on multiple centralized exchanges and Cardano decentralized trading platforms, the order book depth within 2% of the current price on each platform is far below the nominal size of 515 million tokens.

When market participants observe abnormal transfers from bridge lock-up addresses, market makers typically first lower quote sizes, widen spreads, and tighten risk limits. Token holders may sell preemptively to hedge against the risk of bridged assets continuing to flow into the market.

The simultaneous increase in active selling and passive liquidity withdrawal can easily lead to continuous slippage. Falling prices can further trigger stop-losses, leveraged position reductions, and panic selling.

This also explains why a token doesn't need to be entirely sold for its price to drop over 30%. What determines short-term prices is not the total supply, but the real capital willing to absorb sell orders within a limited price range at any given moment.

Existing Unlock Structure Increases Supply Sensitivity

Before this incident, NIGHT was already in a phase of continuous supply entering circulation. The NIGHT Token Launch and Redemption Guide shows that Glacier Drop and Scavenger Mine community allocations exceed 4.5 billion tokens, with related tokens gradually entering circulation through four equal unlocks.

An announcement regarding redemption resumption released by the team on July 9 also confirmed that NIGHT unlocked during the suspension period could be claimed again.

Normal unlocks are not equivalent to today's bridge event, and there is no evidence that routine claims were the direct cause of this crash. However, when the market is already digesting a continuously increasing supply of tradable tokens, a sudden large-scale transfer of bridged assets further weakens buyer confidence in short-term supply-demand balance.

In other words, the unlock schedule constitutes the supply backdrop, while the bridge incident was the direct catalyst triggering the price crash.

Core Network Not Confirmed Damaged, But Risks Remain

Officials Limit Incident to External Bridge Path

In a recent update, the Midnight Foundation stated it has noted the incident involving wrapped NIGHT on the Wanchain Cardano-to-BNB bridge path and indicated that currently available information suggests the issue is unrelated to the Midnight network itself.

This distinction is crucial because NIGHT exists in multiple technological and trading environments. Problems with external bridge infrastructure do not automatically mean that Midnight's consensus, validators, zero-knowledge proof system, or native token mechanism are compromised.

According to the Midnight official token description, NIGHT is a publicly transferable native asset used for governance, validator incentives, and generating the non-transferable network resource DUST. Existing public information does not indicate any disruption to these core functions, nor is there evidence that NIGHT's supply cap of 24 billion has been breached due to a vulnerability in the Midnight protocol.

Technical Isolation Does Not Mean Economic Impact Disappears

Technical boundaries and market boundaries are not the same. Even if it is ultimately confirmed that the Midnight mainnet is completely safe, the concentrated movement of bridge-locked assets could still affect the spot price of native NIGHT, the creditworthiness of wrapped assets, and the risk appetite of cross-chain liquidity providers.

The market evaluates protocol security, third-party integration security, and emergency response capabilities simultaneously, rather than only checking whether the core code was attacked.

Investors also need to be wary of two extremes in the narrative. Directly describing the event as a compromise of the Midnight mainnet goes beyond the available evidence. Conversely, dismissing the selling as fundamentally meaningless solely because the officials state the core network is unaffected overlooks the economic consequences of bridge collateral and liquidity trust.

What NIGHT Investors Should Watch Next

Destination of Funds and Bridged Asset Resolution Plan

The first observation point is the subsequent destination of the 515 million NIGHT. The market needs to confirm how many of these tokens entered trading platforms, how many remain in on-chain addresses, how many have been exchanged for other assets, and whether the relevant addresses have been flagged by exchanges or analytics firms.

Not all transferred amounts automatically constitute sold amounts. Only continuous tracking of fund flows can estimate actual selling pressure.

The second observation point is whether Wanchain suspends the relevant route and discloses the latest correspondence between bridge-locked assets and wrapped assets on the BNB Chain. If a collateral gap exists, the market will watch for replenishment plans, asset freezes, redemption arrangements, and user compensation mechanisms.

If the incident involves an authorized migration, operational error, or reversible action, the team needs to provide verifiable transaction records, not just conclusions.

The third observation point is a complete technical forensic investigation. Whether the incident involves private keys, validators, cross-chain message verification, contract permissions, or operational processes will determine whether the risk is a one-time issue or a systemic problem that could affect other Wanchain bridged assets.

Price Stability is More Important Than a Single-Day Rebound

NIGHT has already broken below the previous support area around $0.029 in the latest trading and hit a new low of around $0.01524. Short-term bounces may come from short covering, bottom-fishing, or liquidity recovery, but only if prices can form sustained trading volume above the all-time low and reclaim the $0.02 level can the market begin to judge whether forced selling pressure is abating.

Higher levels to watch include the $0.0268 to $0.029 region. The former is close to the 24-hour high before the crash, while the latter was a support area noted in market analysis from early July.

If the price rebounds but volume quickly shrinks, or if large amounts of NIGHT continue to flow to exchanges on-chain, the rebound is more likely a volatility repair rather than a risk resolution.

Investors can observe NIGHT's real-time price and trading changes via MEXC, but until forensic results are published, price fluctuations should be assessed separately from conclusions about asset safety.

Impact of This Sell-Off on Midnight's Fundamentals

Midnight's long-term value proposition is built on programmable privacy, selective disclosure, zero-knowledge proofs, and a two-component tokenomics system. According to the official design, NIGHT handles value, governance, and network incentives, while DUST serves as a non-transferable and decaying transaction resource. This architecture has not automatically been invalidated by the external bridge event.

However, the market will impose higher execution standards on long-term narratives. A privacy network aiming to serve institutions, fintech companies, and regulated applications not only needs a secure core protocol but also an auditable system for custody, bridging, exchange access, and incident response.

Once cross-chain partners become part of the asset distribution and liquidity network, their security standards are also factored into NIGHT's risk premium.

Therefore, whether Midnight's fundamentals suffer lasting damage will depend on three outcomes.

First, whether the incident can be proven to be completely contained with no new NIGHT or protocol-level vulnerabilities.

Second, whether the affected bridged assets can have their full backing restored.

Third, whether the Midnight Foundation and Wanchain provide sufficiently timely, complete, and verifiable disclosures.

Prices can rebound before the technical investigation concludes, but trust recovery typically takes much longer.

Exclusive Insights from the MEXC Crypto Pulse Research Team

The truly important aspect of this event is not how much NIGHT dropped in a single day, but the risk layer in the token value chain that is most easily underestimated.

The market is accustomed to equating Layer 1 security with token security. However, once native assets enter exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and wrapped asset systems, price formation relies on a set of external infrastructures. The core protocol not being breached does not mean the token's market structure has been unaffected.

The easiest misconception for the market is to confuse technical isolation with economic isolation. The Midnight Foundation's clarification of the incident's scope helps rule out a mainnet-level catastrophe but cannot replace Wanchain's explanation of bridge reserves, assets and liabilities, and fund destination.

As long as the collateral integrity of wrapped NIGHT remains unclear, the risk premium will be difficult to fully dissipate.

What deserves the most attention next is not price targets on social media, but verifiable operational data, including whether the bridge route has been suspended, whether the approximately 515 million token transfer scale has been officially confirmed, the actual sale volume, exchange fund flows, wrapped asset supply, reserve coverage ratio, and recovery progress.

Any deviation in numbers could amplify panic, so official reports need to simultaneously provide on-chain addresses, transaction hashes, and complete timelines.

For the broader crypto market, this event once again demonstrates that interoperability is not a free growth channel. Cross-chain connections can expand liquidity and user coverage, but they also bring external trust assumptions into asset pricing.

In the future, when institutions evaluate blockchain projects, they may no longer just audit the protocol code but also examine bridge partners, custody arrangements, wrapped asset accounting, and crisis management processes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the NIGHT price crash today?

The direct trigger for today's NIGHT crash was the report that approximately 515 million tokens were moved from Wanchain's Cardano-side bridge lock-up address, followed by large-scale on-chain selling. This amount represents about 3.1% of NIGHT's current circulating supply, and market order book depth was far insufficient to absorb such concentrated potential supply without impact. Concerns about bridge collateral, market makers narrowing quotes, and holders seeking safety collectively amplified the decline.

Was the Midnight network attacked?

As of the time of writing, there is no evidence that the Midnight network, consensus mechanism, validators, or native NIGHT supply mechanism were attacked. The Midnight Foundation has stated that the incident is currently confined to the Wanchain Cardano-to-BNB bridge path, affecting the wrapped version of NIGHT. As a complete technical forensic investigation has not yet been released, investors should still wait for further confirmation from Wanchain and the Midnight Foundation.

What does 515 million NIGHT mean?

Based on a circulating supply of approximately 16.607 billion tokens, 515 million NIGHT represents about 3.1% of the circulating supply and roughly 2.15% of the total supply of 24 billion. This does not mean all tokens have been sold, nor are final losses determined. However, assets of this size leaving a bridge lock-up address significantly changes the market's assessment of potential selling pressure, wrapped asset collateral, and redemption capabilities.

Will NIGHT continue to fall?

The short-term direction depends