On August 15, 2010, Bitcoin faced a critical vulnerability that nearly led to its collapse. A single transaction in block 74,638 exploited an integer overflow bug, creating 184,467,440,737 BTC—over 8,800 times the total supply cap of 21 million. This flaw allowed two addresses to receive approximately 92.2 billion BTC each, threatening the very foundation of Bitcoin's scarcity model.Medium+4Binance+4Investing.com+4Wikipedia+4GitHub+4Medium+4
The issue, identified as CVE-2010-5139, was due to a flaw in the code that failed to properly check large transaction outputs, allowing the creation of vast amounts of Bitcoin from thin air . Within hours of the exploit, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, along with early developer Gavin Andresen, released version 0.3.10 of the Bitcoin client. This update included a soft fork that rejected transactions with output value overflows, effectively nullifying the fraudulent coins and reverting the blockchain to a state before the exploit .Wikipedia+1CoinDesk+1U.Today+4CoinCodex+4Medium+4GitHub+3Medium+3Investing.com+3
The swift response and rollback were crucial in preserving Bitcoin's integrity. Had the exploit gone unaddressed, the value of Bitcoin could have plummeted to zero, as the market would no longer trust its fixed supply. Instead, the incident demonstrated the community's ability to swiftly correct critical issues, reinforcing confidence in Bitcoin's resilience.Medium+1GitHub+1
Despite the severity of the bug, Bitcoin's price remained relatively unaffected in the long term. In fact, by the end of 2010, Bitcoin's price had increased over 300%, from $0.07 to $0.30, signaling growing trust and adoption .Medium+1Quadriga Initiative+1
This event marked a pivotal moment in Bitcoin's history, highlighting the importance of vigilant development and community response in maintaining the security and trustworthiness of decentralized systems$BTC