Hacking sees $100M worth crypto stolen from blockchain bridge

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) – A hacking resulted in $100 million cryptocurrency being stolen from a blockchain bridge, according to a company statement released on Friday.

The blockchain bridge Horizon's developer Harmony announced the incident on the company's Twitter account.

"The Harmony team has identified a theft occurring this morning on the Horizon bridge amounting to approx. $100MM. We have begun working with national authorities and forensic specialists to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds," it said.

"We have also notified exchanges and stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions. The team is all hands on deck as investigations continue. We will keep everyone up-to-date as we investigate this further and obtain more information," it added.

The company said the incident does not affect the separate Bitcoin bridge, since its funds and assets are stored on decentralized vaults and they are safe at the time.

Blockchain bridges enable users to transfer their cryptos from one blockchain to another, as they can send digital assets between Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum network.

This marks the third hacking in recent months on blockchain bridges, as decentralized finance, referred to as DeFi, struggles with tech issues that are open to vulnerability.

In late March, Ronin Network that supports gaming Axie Infinity lost more than $625 million worth coins in a security breach, while Wormhole that bridges Ethereum and Solana networks lost approximately $320 million in early February.