Hacker Takes Down 69% of the Dogecoin Network Using an Old Laptop

New data blockchain explorer Blockchair reveals that a hacker took advantage of an exploit in Dogecoin's (DOGE) blockchain, causing the majority

A hacker has reportedly exploited a vulnerability in Dogecoin's (DOGE) blockchain, causing the majority of its nodes to crash.

According to a Dogecoin monitoring platform, the number of DOGE nodes dropped drastically from 647 to 205 earlier this week.

“Our monitoring made us aware that the vulnerability appears to have been exploited, and almost 69% of the Dogecoin network has crashed. Blockchair shows the number of public nodes. Before, it was 647, and at the time of writing it is just 205.”

However, data from Blockchair now shows some recovery, with 331 DOGE nodes active around the world at the time of writing.

In a recent thread on social media platform X, Bitcoin (BTC) sidechain developer Andreas Kohl revealed that he was able to take down most of the DOGE network using an old laptop.

“I used a publicly disclosed vulnerability [by BTC developer Tobias Ruck] to take down 69% of the Dogecoin network from an old thinkpad in rural El Salvador.”

According to Kohl, most DOGE users didn't even notice the exploit.

“Only nodes that weren’t on the latest version were affected – which was the majority of the network, excluding CEXs (centralized exchanges) and most other major custodians – hence why most doge users never noticed, not that many understand self-custody.”

The news of the exploit had minimal impact on DOGE's price, with the meme asset trading at $0.413 at the time of writing, down 4.7% over the last 24 hours.