Crypto hackers targeted one of the most popular token bridges that link both Ethereum and Solana, Wormhole, amassing a whopping $320 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Crypto Hack and Ethereum, Solona's Token Bridge Wormhole
As per a news story by CNBC, developers of Wormhole confirmed that there has been an exploit on its systems through its Twitter account.
The tweet said that the network of Wormhole has been taken down temporarily for maintenance as the devs look into any "potential exploit."
CNBC further noted in the same report that Wormhole is a protocol, which allows users to move their crypto tokens under the Ethereum and Solana blockchain.
It comes as there are multiple blockchains, thus bridges, such as Wormhole, make moving from one blockchain ecosystem to another possible.
And it turns out that the latest victim of crypto hacking is one of the biggest token bridges, Wormhole.
According to a report by CryptoBuzz UK, Wormhole also allows its users to access other crypto tokens via Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon-to name a few, without needing to use another centralized change.
Wormhole Hack Steals $320M
After which, the Twitter account announced that its network has been hacked, losing a whopping 120,000 wETH, which is worth $320 million.
Meanwhile, the blockchain cybersecurity firm, CertiK claimed that the crypto hackers pocketed about $251 million worth of Ethereum, approximately $47 million worth of Solana, as well as $4 million of the stable coin USDC, which mirrors the price of the US dollar.
The analysis further noted that the exploit started from the Solana side of the bridge, which created wETH or "wrapped Ethereum."
On top of that, the co-founder of CertiK, Ronghui Gu, said that the "$320 million hack on Wormhole Bridge highlights the growing trend of attacks against blockchains protocols."
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.
Wormhole Hack and NFT Purchase
Crypto Buzz added in the same report that the hackers were seen to have used the stolen crypto to buy some of the hottest and massively lucrative NFTs nowadays.
It includes Bored Ape Yacht Membership Token or APE and Finally Usable Crypto Karma or FUCK.
Meanwhile, CNBC reported that the recent $320 million hacking incident is the second biggest crypto exploit in history.
Until now, the $600 million Poly Network heist remains second to none in terms of the scale of the stolen crypto.
The hackers from the biggest crypto hack in history have already returned what they have stolen, the criminal minds even got a job offer from Poly Network after doing so.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Teejay Boris
