Aztec Tells Alpha V4 Users to Exit Before June 25 Ahead of V5 Governance Step
Aztec is urging users with funds on its Alpha V4 network to withdraw before June 25, warning that an upcoming governance action to move V5 forward will make V4's known security weaknesses public.
In a post on X, the privacy-focused Ethereum layer-2 said that once the V5 proposal enters the onchain governance process, details of vulnerabilities affecting V4 will be disclosed under its transparency commitments. That disclosure could create a period in which any funds still left on V4 are exposed, with no immediate patch available.
Aztec framed the notice as part of a routine upgrade migration rather than a response to an ongoing exploit.
Critical vulnerability disclosed
Aztec revealed a critical bug in Alpha V4 in March 2026, stating it impacts "the proving system as a whole" and that exploitation "can lead to severe disruption of the protocol and theft of user funds." At the time, the team said it would keep technical details private until V5 is released, citing its security policy. The policy notes that each alpha release has its own bug tracker and that V5 will consolidate fixes from ongoing audits.
Aztec has planned the V5 release for July 2026.
Why June 25 matters
Aztec described June 25 as the key cutoff: once the V5 governance proposal goes live onchain, the underlying V4 issues must be publicly disclosed. Users who remain on V4 after that point would be using software with openly documented vulnerabilities.
Aztec has repeatedly stressed during the Alpha phase that deposits should be treated as experimental and limited to amounts users can afford to lose. The project has not published a dollar figure for how much is currently held on V4 portals.
The warning arrives eight days after an unrelated incident in which $2.1 million was drained from Aztec Connect, a long-deprecated protocol that Aztec Labs shut down three years ago.
AZTEC is trading at $0.0143 with a market capitalization of $42.25 million, according to CoinGecko. With the June 25 deadline two days away, users with assets on Aztec V4 portals or apps are advised to start withdrawals immediately, as exiting via the L1-to-L2 bridge may require extra time.
