Cardano EMURGO exits Pentad after SecondFi hack, ADA price drops

EMURGO, one of Cardano’s founding entities, announced it will step down from the Cardano Pentad, the blockchain’s five‑member governance body. The decision follows the SecondFi security breach that compromised roughly 374 wallets and resulted in a loss of about $2.4 million (≈16 million ADA). EMURGO said it will devote all resources to the recovery process, activating a quarantine mode for affected users and planning a secure wallet‑export tool.

The governance exit coincided with a sharp sell‑off in ADA. Prices fell about 5‑6 % to roughly $0.1665, with trading volume exceeding $340 million as investors reacted to the news and broader geopolitical tensions. Community reaction was mixed: some praised EMURGO’s focus on user recovery, while others called for greater transparency and a reassessment of its voting power within the Pentad.

Separately, the Cardano Foundation launched the Ouroboros Leios public testnet, a milestone for scaling development, but the token’s price remained under pressure. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson also used the price dip to criticize Ethereum’s development community, claiming they ignore Cardano’s Extended UTXO model.