Ontology’s core development team pulled the emergency brake on its mainnet on August 31, stopping block production entirely after flagging a potential security issue during a routine daily check. The last block produced was approximately 20,770,893, and every on-chain transaction ground to a halt while validators and the technical team launched a comprehensive review.
No confirmed security breach or user asset loss has been reported. But the precautionary freeze was enough to send ripples across the ecosystem, with major Korean exchanges Bithumb and Upbit quickly suspending deposits and withdrawals for ONT, ONG, and MovieBloc (MBL) tokens tied to the Ontology network.
What happened and what we know so far
The halt came roughly ten days after Ontology rolled out its MainNet v3.1.2 upgrade around August 21. That update was designed to improve Ethereum compatibility by adding EVM opcodes, a move aimed at making the network more accessible to developers building in the broader EVM ecosystem.
The Ontology team has not provided a timeline for when block production will resume. The priority, according to the team, is completing a thorough safety assessment before bringing the network back online.
