Core Fork Recovers 68.15 Million CORE After b14g Hack

Core used a hard fork to recover 68.15 million CORE from three addresses that b14g identified as attacker-controlled after the protocol’s Oct. 31 hack, according to a b14g recovery update.

The recovery represents about 70.2% of the approximately 97.05 million CORE affected, according to The Defiant’s calculation using b14g’s figures. But the protocol said the recovered tokens have not been distributed to users, and no official claims process has opened.

Core’s block explorer showed 68,146,177.22 CORE in the designated recovery address when checked for this article. All three source addresses listed in the fork’s code showed zero CORE balances. The funds sit in the recovery contract; b14g’s update did not identify who controls it.

A Balance Rewrite, Not a Rollback

b14g described the recovery as a “one-time state adjustment” carried out on Nov. 2, “without reversing transactions, minting new tokens, or changing the total CORE supply.”

Core’s Fermi upgrade code specifies three source accounts and the same recovery address. It sets each source balance to zero and credits their combined balance to the recipient. Activation was scheduled for 11 p.m. ET on Nov. 1, equivalent to 4 a.m. UTC on Nov. 2.

That distinction matters for finality: the transaction history can remain intact while a coordinated change to network rules reassigns the resulting balances without the account holders signing a transfer. The upgrade’s documentation warns that validators running the old software would continue with a different chain state. This was a change to the rules enforced by validators, not an ordinary withdrawal or a rollback of the original transactions.

b14g is a restaking and yield protocol on Core and Babylon. In its initial security update, it said it had paused affected contracts after CORE staked through the protocol was withdrawn without authorization. It said BTC staked through b14g remained time-locked on Bitcoin and was unaffected. Core DAO said CORE staked directly with validators or through other protocols was unaffected.

Exchange Recoveries Still Pending

b14g reported on Oct. 31 that exchange partners had frozen approximately 9 million CORE. Its latest update said exchange-held or frozen funds had not yet been returned and that it was working with exchanges and law enforcement on their recovery.

Subtracting the hard-fork recovery and that earlier exchange-freeze estimate from the reported incident total leaves roughly 19.9 million CORE outside those two categories, according to The Defiant’s calculation. That is a provisional reconciliation, not a confirmed permanent loss: b14g said it would update the shortfall as balances were reconciled and explore additional recovery and funding options.

The protocol is still finalizing its distribution plan and timeline. It warned users that there is no official recovery claim process and that they should never share private keys or seed phrases with purported recovery services.