The Cardano co-founder Emurgo has been forced to hand over control of the TOKEN2049 event to the Cardano Foundation following a $20 million hack of its neo-finance platform SecondFi. The announcement was made Tuesday by Intersect, Cardano's governance firm, which stated that Emurgo "is unable to allocate the necessary resources to plan and execute Token2049." Emurgo confirmed that its priority is now solely the recovery of assets for affected users.
Emurgo steps back from key roles
Emurgo also stepped down last week from the "Pentad," an executive body composed of multiple Cardano firms. The company stated that its immediate focus is on the SecondFi recovery process, concentrating resources where they are needed most. This retreat comes after SecondFi was hacked for $2.4 million worth of ADA in June, followed by Emurgo's emergency measure to take $18.5 million worth of ADA from users as part of a white hat hack, the identity of which remains unknown.
Cardano Foundation steps in
The Cardano Foundation announced that it will take over the TOKEN2049 booth and is also organizing a side event called CardanoxDraperxBitcoin, funded by Draper and the foundation. More details are expected soon. This development follows Cardano users voting to cancel the annual summit in Singapore scheduled for October 2026. Last month, a separate proposal from Emurgo to attend and sponsor TOKEN2049 in Singapore this October was passed, but the SecondFi hack has upended those plans.
SecondFi shutdown and recovery efforts
SecondFi has announced it will shut down and dedicate its resources to recovering stolen assets. In early July, the platform claimed that the white hat hack funds are "currently protected and accessible" and will form part of the recovery effort. Protos has reached out to Cardano Summit organizers for comment and will update this story as more information becomes available.