Avalanche stopped adding blocks at 11:13 UTC, according to the status page, which noted that developers for the network had already begun investigating the issue. At 15:59, developers released a software upgrade for Avalanche nodes that disabled logic which led to an “excessive amount of gossip” between validator nodes. Validators are entities spread around the world that manage blockchain nodes, securing the network and processing transactions. The software patch addressed an issue where more information was passing between the nodes than necessary, which placed a strain on the network and ultimately brought it offline.