Emurgo, the Cardano co-founding firm, has handed over responsibility for running TOKEN2049 to the Cardano Foundation after the $20 million hack tied to its neo-finance platform, SecondFi. The change was announced Tuesday by Intersect, Cardano’s governance firm.
Intersect said Emurgo “is unable to allocate the necessary resources to plan and execute Token2049.” Emurgo said, “Following the recent SecondFi incident, we have confirmed that our priority right now must be solely the recovery of assets for all affected users.”
Intersect confirms organizer switch
In a post announcing the move, Intersect said many in the community were already aware that Emurgo had been focused on managing the SecondFi incident. Because of that, Intersect said, Emurgo informed it that the firm could not commit the resources needed to plan and execute TOKEN2049. Intersect said it received and reviewed the request.
The Cardano Foundation said that, in addition to the Cardano booth, it is also organizing a side event called CardanoxDraperxBitcoin, funded by Draper and the Cardano Foundation. It said more information will be released soon.
Cardano summit in Singapore was already canceled
Cardano users had already voted to cancel the Cardano annual summit scheduled for October 2026 in Singapore. That vote took place last month.
The same vote also approved an Emurgo proposal for Cardano to attend and sponsor TOKEN2049 in Singapore this October.
SecondFi recovery has taken priority inside Emurgo
Emurgo also stepped down last week from Pentad, an executive body made up of multiple Cardano firms. At the time, it said, “Our immediate priority is the @secondfiapp recovery process, and we are concentrating our resources where they are needed most.”
SecondFi was hacked for $2.4 million worth of ADA last June. Emurgo then used emergency measures to take $18.5 million worth of ADA from users as part of what the report described as a mysterious white hat hack event.
Part of that uncertainty came from information later relayed by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, which suggested that the identity of the white hat hacker was unknown.
In early July, SecondFi said the white hat hack funds “are currently protected and accessible,” and that they “will form part of the recovery effort to return assets to affected users.”
SecondFi also said it will shut down and devote its efforts to recovering stolen assets.
Protos said it has contacted Cardano Summit organizers for comment and will update its report if it receives a response.