Binance has successfully completed the migration of Zilliqa (ZIL) deposits and withdrawals from the legacy Schnorr-based network to the Zilliqa EVM network at a 1:1 ratio, following the major security flaw that exposed thousands of accounts and led to the theft of over 683 million ZIL tokens. According to crypto.news, the exchange handled the technical process for users who held ZIL on its platform, with deposits and withdrawals through the legacy Zilliqa network remaining suspended since August 5 at 01:00 UTC. The migration has been completed without affecting trading operations, ensuring users can continue accessing ZIL markets while benefiting from the enhanced security of the EVM environment.
The migration follows a significant security breach that exposed 6,772 accounts and led to at least 683.13 million ZIL being stolen across 66 transactions. As reported by crypto.news, the vulnerability involved a flaw in Zilliqa's Ledger application that affected native, non-EVM transactions signed using Ledger devices. The defect had been present in every released version of the Zilliqa Ledger application between 2019 and 2026, with the first proven theft occurring on March 4 before the problem was detected. Activity increased in July, with KuCoin notifying Zilliqa on July 19 after finding unusual outgoing transactions from one of its cold wallets. The legacy transaction system was vulnerable due to a flaw that compromised private keys by generating weak signatures, making it susceptible to attacks that could reconstruct private keys from exposed legacy keys.
The first exchange migration hard fork took place on September 2, moving balances held in legacy Schnorr-based wallets to EVM addresses supplied by participating exchanges. According to crypto.news, KuCoin, MEXC, OKCoin, Binance US, Bitvavo, Korbit, Indodax, Bitrue, WhiteBIT, CoinSpot and CoinSwitch were included in the first batch. A second hard fork was scheduled for September 22, covering CoinEx, HTX, Bitkub, GOPAX, Coinone, OKX, LBank, Crypto.com, Gate, Paribu, CEX.IO and Bitget. Binance had remained outside earlier batches but confirmed its participation in the latest migration, with the exchange successfully completing the technical process for its users. This finalizes Zilliqa's transition to the more secure EVM environment as its sole production network, aiming to prevent further security risks from the legacy system.
Zilliqa has developed a zero knowledge proof based migration system for users who hold ZIL in their own legacy wallets, designed to allow holders to prove ownership of old addresses and transfer balances to EVM addresses without giving Zilliqa a seed phrase or private key. As reported by crypto.news, the audit of the ZKP migration tool has been completed with internal testing following security review, with rollout targeted for September 22 alongside activation of an escrow contract required for the migration process. The project has warned users against moving funds through exposed legacy keys, as both legitimate holders and attackers can sign transactions from accounts with reconstructed private keys. This self-custody migration tool provides a secure path for individual holders to transition to the enhanced EVM environment without compromising their private key security.
Zilliqa's move toward EVM infrastructure began before the Ledger incident, with the blockchain transitioning to Zilliqa 2.0 in June 2025, bringing full Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility alongside proof of stake consensus. According to crypto.news, Zilliqa described the legacy stack as an increasing development and security liability and confirmed that Zilliqa EVM will become its sole production environment. The project has been working with exchanges and law enforcement to trace stolen assets, with an exchange account used to liquidate part of the stolen funds identified and frozen, while the team has proposed a community vote on changes to ZIL tokenomics that could include minting tokens to compensate affected holders. This final migration completes the transition to the more secure EVM environment, ensuring all ZIL holders benefit from enhanced security measures and preventing future vulnerabilities from the legacy system.
