A cryptocurrency breach happened on Wednesday, Feb.2, an apparent hack of Wormhole, one of the most prominent bridges connecting the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, resulted in a loss of approximately $320 million dollars.
They are particularly popular in the worlds of DeFi, where programmable contracts may be used to substitute attorneys and bankers in some transactions, and NFTs.
In a statement released by the developers of Wormhole, a popular blockchain bridge, they announced that hackers had stolen more than $324 million worth of cryptocurrency.
The platform acts as a link between various decentralized-finance blockchain networks, allowing for the transfer of cryptocurrency across them.
Thieves made off with 120,000 wETH, or wrapped Ethereum, worth approximately $324 million at current exchange rates, according to Wormhole, who revealed the theft in a series of tweets sent out Wednesday afternoon.
In addition, the platform's network was taken offline for scheduled maintenance.
According to CNET, the flaw appears to have enabled the attacker to create 120,000 wrapped ETH on the Solana blockchain, with 93,750 ETH of that total being transferred to the Ethereum blockchain after the attack.
The wormhole network was exploited for 120k wETH.
— Wormhole (@wormhole) February 2, 2022
ETH will be added over the next hours to ensure wETH is backed 1:1. More details to come shortly.
We are working to get the network back up quickly. Thanks for your patience.
Cryptocurrency Hacking
As reported by CNBC, after the $600 million Poly Network crypto theft, this is DeFi's second-largest exploit ever.
It is also the largest attack on solana, a cryptocurrency alternative to ethereum that is gradually becoming popular in the non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems.
When it comes to blockchain technology, Ethereum is the most widely used network, and it is a major player in the world of DeFi, in which programmable pieces of code known as smart contracts can be used to eliminate the need for middlemen, such as banks and lawyers in certain types of business transactions.
Solana, a more recently released alternative to Ethereum, is gaining in prominence because of the fact that it is both cheaper and faster to use than the cryptocurrency.
Due to the fact that cryptocurrency holders do not always function completely within a single blockchain ecosystem, developers have created cross-chain bridges that allow users to transfer cryptocurrency from one chain to another.
Wormhole is a mechanism that allows users to transfer their tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) across the Solana and Ethereum blockchains.
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Wormhole Loses $320 million Though A Breach
A similar attack against another blockchain bridge occurred just a week before, when a hacker stole $80 million from Qubit Finance, which was a victim of a similar attack.
According to data provided by the DeFiYield project, if Wormhole formally confirms the amount of stolen cash, the incident will likely become the largest hack of a cryptocurrency platform so far this year, as well as the second-largest hack of a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform in history.
The Record Media stated that as part of a "bug bounty," Wormhole is offering a hacker $10 million.
It was pointed out that, similar to the Qubit hack, Wormhole is now appealing to the hacker and asking them to return the stolen funds in exchange for a $10 million reward and a "whitehat contract," which means the platform will most likely not file a criminal complaint against the attacker.
Nevertheless, it is also discovered that in numerous instances, such contracts exonerating hackers are not lawful in some areas, and authorities may continue to pursue the hacker regardless of the terms of the agreement.
