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- An attack on the blockchain bridge protocol, Wormhole has resulted in the loss of at least 120,000 ETH.
- The amount is worth $322 million, the number was previously reported to be around 100,000 ETH which would have made the total worth $265 million.
- The blockchain bridge protocol that was hacked has offered a reward of $10 million if any information on the attacked amount is returned.
According to various reports, an attacker has exploited the bridge protocol Wormhole for $322 million worth of ETH. Wormhole is a protocol that operates as a bridge between blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. It allows users to move funds quickly and easily between those blockchains.
The attack is estimated above 120,000 ETH
Wormhole has estimated that the attack has put a price tag of 120,000 Ether at $322 million. However, early reports about the attack placed the number at 80,000 Ether and later it was changed to 93,750 Ether with its value accounting for $256 million according to The Block.
Based on the current reports, it appears that the team at Solana did not take into account where their ETH portfolio would be stored over the course of their project’s development. Other large-scale attacks have included a $611 million theft from Poly Network last August and another $122 million (at today’s ETH price) from BadgerDAO in June 2021.
There is no official confirmation from Wormhole
Wormhole’s official Twitter account has not been forthcoming with any details regarding the attack, but it has said that the network is “down for maintenance as [it looks] into a potential exploit.” Elsewhere, The developers at Wormhole also attempted to contact the hacker by sending them a blockchain message to gain access to their wallet, though it was an unsuccessful attempt. The team members have also extended an offer of a “white hat agreement” and are offering a $10 million bounty in exchange for revealing their exploit strategy and returning the stolen funds.
A message also said that the attacker managed to mint new tokens by exploiting a verification protocol used by Wormhole’s Solana VAA (Verification of Authorized Address)–the messaging system used by receiving blockchains was exploited. Solana is a blockchain that supports high-throughput transactions, it has been developed to make sending payments easy and efficient. Incidentally, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned about the shortcomings of cross-chain bridges in early January when he stated: “Plugs for combining chains always have tight security assumptions, which always get tightened a bit more as time goes on but security risks are still present in this kind of technology. ”
Wormhole offers the attacker $10 million as a “bug bounty” if the amount is returned
Wormhole is offering a $10 million reward for the hacker to return the stolen funds that were taken from their crypto exchange, which should hopefully be enough money to incentivize them. There are also no legal repercussions if they return the funds because Wormhole has offered them a “whitehat contract” which means that if they do hand over all of the stolen cryptocurrency within a specified time period, then it won’t report them to authorities or file legal complaints. However, as we saw with Bloomberg Technology executive was sentenced to six months in prison last year after ordering his cyber security team to cover up an attack that resulted in over $100 million worth of digital currency being stolen – so this might not be something users should bank on even though there’s certainly some people who may opt for this scenario.
Conclusion
It is always difficult to lose money, and when it happens due to the fault of someone else it stings even worse. Unfortunately, that is the situation in which many investors on the Wormhole cryptocurrency platform find themselves today. The company has been accused of stealing $322 million worth of investors’ funds. If you were an investor on the platform, you are probably feeling quite frustrated right now.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.
