Aztec Tells V4 Users to Withdraw Before June 25 as V5 Upgrade Exposes Security Flaws

Aztec is urging holders of funds on its Alpha V4 network to withdraw before June 25, when a planned governance step to bring V5 to the network will make the current version’s security vulnerabilities publicly visible.

The privacy-focused Ethereum layer-2 posted the warning on X, calling on users to move funds out of V4 before the V5 governance vote proceeds. Once V5 enters the governance process, details of the V4 vulnerabilities will become publicly disclosed, opening a window in which any remaining funds could be at risk. The notice frames this as a standard migration tied to the upgrade cycle, not a response to an active exploit.

Critical Bug

Aztec disclosed a critical vulnerability in Alpha V4 in March 2026, saying the flaw affects “the proving system as a whole” and that exploitation “can lead to severe disruption of the protocol and theft of user funds.” The team committed at that time to keeping the specific bug details private until the V5 release, consistent with its stated security policy.

That policy notes that each new alpha release gets its own bug tracker, and that V5 would package all fixes from ongoing audits. The V5 release has been planned for July 2026.

Migration Window

The June 25 deadline is the critical gap: when the V5 governance proposal goes on-chain, Aztec’s transparency commitments require the underlying V4 bugs to be disclosed publicly. Users who have not withdrawn by then would be operating in a version with known, public vulnerabilities and no imminent patch.

Aztec has consistently warned users throughout the Alpha phase that deposits should be treated as experimental and capped at amounts they are willing to lose. No dollar figure for funds currently held on V4 portals has been published.

The Aztec V4 migration notice comes eight days after an unrelated exploit drained $2.1 million from Aztec Connect, a long-deprecated protocol that Aztec Labs shut down three years ago. The AZTEC token is trading at $0.0143, with a market cap of $42.25 million, per CoinGecko.

The June 25 deadline is two days away. Users with assets on Aztec V4 portals or applications should initiate withdrawals immediately, as the L1-to-L2 bridge exit process may require additional lead time.