Bitcoin briefly displayed as $0 on Paradex, a decentralized exchange running on Starknet, after a faulty database migration corrupted its price feed. The error triggered automated mass liquidations, an eight-hour trading halt and a controversial chain rollback to block 1,604,710.
The incident forced Paradex to cancel open orders and restore state to the pre-maintenance block, while security monitors flagged a concurrent movement of funds tied to a larger theft. The episode highlighted operational fragility during network upgrades and renewed debate over immutability in DeFi.
Paradex’s internal price feed was corrupted during scheduled maintenance on Starknet, causing perpetual contracts — including BTC, ETH and SOL — to be mispriced. Bitcoin was displayed at $0.00, which triggered automatic liquidations of long positions and widespread cancellations of orders, while some shorts closed at normal market levels. Paradex paused trading and then executed a chain rollback to block 1,604,710 to revert affected state and transactions.
Paradex’s director of engineering, Clement Ho, said the rolled-back block represented the last known correct state before maintenance began. ‘This block represented the last known correct state before the maintenance began,’ he noted on January 19. The exchange later said recovery efforts were underway and that user funds were safe as services were gradually re-enabled under restricted modes.
The source document identified a faulty database migration on Starknet as the proximate cause. The corruption produced abnormal funding rates and incorrect price feeds that automated risk engines treated as market prices, cascading into mass liquidations. Paradex halted trading for roughly eight hours and canceled open orders except for critical take-profit and stop-loss instructions. Trading resumed around 12:10 UTC after the rollback and staged recovery.
Market impact and security context
The platform-level mispricing did not reflect broader market conditions: Bitcoin’s actual market price remained around $93,000 during the incident, per platform reports. Still, the internal error erased positions and amplified losses for users on Paradex. The exchange had recorded roughly $37 billion in trading volume over the prior 30 days, magnifying the operational and reputational stakes.
Separately, CertiK Pulse flagged that $63 million was routed to Tornado Cash from a $282 million theft wallet during the same disruption window, underscoring concurrent security risks affecting the broader ecosystem.
Investors and infrastructure operators are now turning their attention to Starknet’s post-mortem and Paradex’s follow-up disclosures on remediation and user redress. Paradex’s decisions on compensation, technical fixes and transparency will shape whether trust in its platform is restored and how counterparties adjust risk controls for future maintenance windows.
