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Chainalysis Estimates $2B Stolen From Cross-Chain Bridge Hacks This Year

This week, hackers used a vulnerability on the Nomad bridge to steal $190 million worth of crypto.

By Oliver Knight
AccessTimeIconAug 4, 2022 at 11:28 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 5:44 p.m. UTC
Cross-chain bridge attacks equal $2B in 2022 (Charlie Green/Unsplash)

Chainalysis estimates that cross-chain bridge attacks have resulted in $2 billion in stolen funds this year. (Charlie Green/Unsplash)

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Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis said it estimates that $2 billion worth of crypto has been siphoned out of cross-chain bridges this year, including this week's $190 million Nomad bridge exploit.

  • In a report earlier this week assessing the security vulnerabilities of cross-chain bridges, Chainalysis estimate that this type of hack accounts for 69% of all stolen crypto funds this year.
  • Cross-chain bridges are used to send tokens between blockchains and are a popular tool used by the crypto community. Chainalysis said that the underlying technology of cross-chain bridges is still in its infancy and that many new models are being tested, leaving the software open to attack.
  • The most notable of the 13 cross-chain attacks this year was the Ronin Bridge exploit, which saw the protocol lose $625 million in ether (ETH) and USDC after being targeted by North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
  • This week, hackers exploited a vulnerability in Nomad, a popular bridge that is used to transfer assets from Moonbeam and Evmos to Ethereum.
  • "Bridges are an attractive target because they often feature a central storage point of funds that back the 'bridged' assets on the receiving blockchain," the report said.

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Oliver Knight
Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.

Follow @OKnightCrypto on Twitter

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