Linea Shakes Off Glitch in Time for Massive Airdrop

Ethereum layer-2 network Linea and Polygon both faced technical setbacks, but moved quickly to restore stability. Linea reported a temporary disruption in its mainnet sequencer at around 5:52 am UTC, which engineers resolved within an hour before shifting into a monitoring phase. The incident coincided with Linea’s highly anticipated token airdrop. Meanwhile, Polygon encountered a bug in its Bor and Erigon nodes that delayed consensus finality and disrupted RPC services, though the chain continued producing blocks. Validators and RPC providers were instructed to resynchronize, and Polygon has since identified a fix being rolled out to restore normal operations.

Linea Restores Network

Ethereum layer-2 network Linea successfully restored its mainnet sequencer after a brief disruption that took place on Wednesday morning. According to the project’s status page, the incident was detected at approximately 5:52 am UTC when engineers identified performance degradation affecting the sequencer, which is the crucial component responsible for ordering and batching transactions on the network. 

In less than an hour, Linea’s team pinpointed the root cause and deployed a fix to stabilize the system. Shortly afterward, by 6:32 am UTC, the network transitioned into a monitoring phase, with engineers ensuring the fix held steady and assessing the system’s performance. While Linea did not disclose the exact nature of the technical issue, it confirmed that stability was restored and that no further disruptions were expected.

Linea status page

The timing of the incident raised some questions across the crypto community as it coincided with the launch of Linea’s much-anticipated token airdrop. The project previously announced in July that its token generation event (TGE) would take place on Sept. 10. This was a milestone that has been closely watched by Ethereum users and developers. 

Although Linea did not link the technical issue directly to the airdrop, there is speculation given the overlap in timing. The event is major for the ecosystem, as Linea plans to distribute 9.36 billion LINEA tokens to approximately 749,000 eligible wallets. Recipients will have a 90-day claim window, running until Dec. 9, to redeem their tokens.

The airdrop is being hailed as one of the largest token distributions on Ethereum since the network’s formative years, and is considered to be a reflection of the scale of engagement Linea has achieved through its community initiatives, quests, and on-chain activity. The project positioned the airdrop as part of a broader ecosystem incentive program that is designed to reward early adopters and contributors while encouraging ongoing growth. 

Alongside individual participants, allocations will also extend to ecosystem partners and developers supporting Linea’s expansion. The anticipation around the TGE already attracted support from major exchanges, with Binance and OKX confirming it will list the LINEA token. Trading for the token is set to start today. 

Despite the early disruption, the quick response to the sequencer issue seems to have contained the impact.

Polygon Faces Node Bug

Polygon is also working to resolve a temporary disruption in consensus finality that was caused by a bug affecting its Bor and Erigon nodes. According to an incident report published on the network’s official status page, the issue began early Wednesday and has impacted some Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services, leaving certain applications built on Polygon unable to access the network. While the blockchain itself is still operational and continues to produce blocks, several validators and RPC providers were forced to rewind to the last finalized block and resynchronize.

The Polygon team explained that the bug prevents node progress under certain configurations, though a restart restored functionality for many participants. Engineers are now collaborating with infrastructure providers to accelerate debugging and restore full service. Polygon stressed that the disruption does not affect core chain operations and reassured its users that a fix is on the way.

The situation caused confusion among users after Polygonscan, the network’s block explorer, showed no new blocks for more than five hours. A Polygon representative clarified that Polygonscan’s nodes halted at a bad milestone produced by Heimdall, the network’s consensus engine. 

The team redirected users to an alternative tracker showing that blocks were still being produced in real time. At 08:52 UTC, Polygon said that checkpoint finality was functioning as expected, with confirmations occurring every 15 minutes.

Deeper analysis revealed that Heimdall’s finality gadget, which usually produces milestones every few seconds, was not creating new milestones. As a result, block finality is delayed until checkpoints are posted on Ethereum every 20 minutes. Despite the delay, the chain continues to add blocks without interruption. Polygon confirmed via X that a fix has been identified and is being rolled out to validators and service providers. The team added that they are working closely with major infrastructure providers to minimize the impact on users.