DeFi whales ‘forgotten’ millions in bridge deal: Arkham
Several identified crypto addresses worth millions of dollars or more are “stuck” or “forgotten” in at least two large bridge contracts, blockchain intelligence firm Arkham said.
“There are dozens of accounts with 6-7 figures stuck in bridge contracts, they are forgotten,” Arkham said in the April 22 X post, including wallets connected to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, crypto exchange Coinbase and several DeFi whales.
The organization has attached two screenshots of money transfers to Arbittrum and Optimism bridges to support their case.
Arkham received $1.05 million from Buterin's wallet of 50 Ether (ETH) stuck in Optimum Bridge for seven months. If the address belongs to Buterin, it represents a small fraction of his $789 million cryptocurrency portfolio, according to Arkham data.
Another wallet linked to Bofur Capital, with the same name as Celsius Lender, has $1.8 million in wrapped-Bitcoin (WBTC) stuck on the arbitrage bridge, which hasn't moved in 27 months, tomasg.it – the founder of decentralized air transport solution Arrow – 800,000 in Ether. The dollar is stuck in a bridge of arbitrage.
Coinbase also tried to link $75,000 in USD Coin (USDC) to Ethereum six months ago via the Optimism bridge, but it has not yet been claimed on the Ethereum base layer, Arkham said.
Related: Wormhole Bridge Hacker Eligible for Short-Term Airdrop From 2022
However, there is a possibility that the owners behind these wallets still have full control over the funds and have voluntarily chosen to freeze the funds for the time being.
Cross-chain bridges play an important role in modular blockchain networks like Ethereum, which prioritize data availability and security at the base layer and offload transaction responsibilities to layer 2s.
However, because bridges are often automated with vulnerable smart contracts or a highly centralized set of validators, they have become a honeypot site for hackers.
For example, the $650 million Ronin Bridge hack orchestrated by the North Korean government-backed Lazarus Group came after it was able to obtain five of the nine private keys held by transaction verifiers in March 2022.
Magazine: ‘SEAL 911' White Hat Team Formed To Fight Crypto Hackers In Real Time
