Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said he has involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after a developer’s so-called “careless” experiment triggered a major chain split on the blockchain.

The event began on Friday, when a malformed delegation transaction exploited a longstanding bug in the Cardano software, resulting in the blockchain splitting into two incompatible chains.

Emergency patches were deployed within hours, and by Saturday, the network had re-stabilized, but the price of ADA dropped by up to 16% during the turmoil before recovering.

Pseudonymous developer “Homer J” admitted to causing the incident.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

He explained that the act was a personal challenge and that he mistakenly relied on AI-generated instructions, failing to adequately test on the network’s testnet before executing the problematic transaction on the mainnet.

Despite Hoskinson’s characterization of the event as a “premeditated attack,” several members of the crypto community argued that a single person shouldn’t have been able to execute a chain split.

The decision to involve the authorities also prompted the resignation of an employee of Input Output Global (IOG), the firm that designs and builds Cardano software.

“Just submitted my resignation letter. I’ve fucked up pen testing in a major way once. I’ve seen my colleagues do the same. I didn’t realize there was a risk of getting raided by the authorities because of that + saying mean things on the Internet,” said X user “effectfully.”