Empowa Suffers Unauthorized Transfer Incident, Approximately 4.24 Million EMP and 143,700 ADA Stolen

TechFlow reported on September 11 that Empowa, a project within the Cardano ecosystem, disclosed two interconnected unauthorized asset transfer incidents involving its three project wallets. Between November 2025 and June 2026, approximately 143,710 ADA were transferred out from one project treasury wallet in 18 separate transactions. The Midnight airdrop corresponding to this wallet was also registered and claimed by an unknown party using the private key, with approximately 36,000 NIGHT tokens already transferred away. From June to August 2026, a total of approximately 4.24 million EMP tokens were transferred out from two other project wallets, with some having been sold via Minswap, VyFi, and other platforms. Empowa stated that the funds from both incidents ultimately flowed into the same intermediate wallet, leading to the conclusion that they were controlled by the same party, although the identities of the individuals operating these private keys remain unconfirmed at present. The project team has hired a professional blockchain investigation agency and plans to request KYC information from the centralized exchanges where the relevant funds eventually entered.