Harmony Network, a popular crypto blockchain, has notified the authorities about the recent heist. According to the firm, the hackers were able to take away more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
So far, the Horizon Bridge heist is one of the biggest hacking incidents that took place in the past weeks.
Horizon Bridge Crypto Hack
According to a report by Bloomberg on Friday, June 24, the unidentified group of hackers has stolen about $100 million. Harmony says that the incident took place last Thursday night, June 23.
The crypto team behind Harmony found out that the thieves looted in the morning. As of writing, the company is now coordinating with the forensic specialists and authorities to determine the identity of the suspects.
For those unfamiliar with the Horizon Bridge, it typically works just like other blockchains. Investors and traders could swap coins, NFTs, and tokens with other blockchains, including BSC (Binance Smart Chain).
On Twitter, Harmony posted that the latest attack in the network has no impact on the bitcoin bridge. This means that the company assures the safety of all assets that are contained inside the decentralized vaults.
1/ 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.
— Harmony 💙 (@harmonyprotocol) June 23, 2022
More 🧵
Related Article: Massive Bitfinex Hack Leads To FBI's Largest Financial Collection | Over $3.6 Billion Crypto Seized!
How Hackers Exploit Horizon Bridge
In another story written by Coindesk, the developer document reveals how the hackers carried out their operations inside the Harmony Network. From the Harmony Ethereum and BSC blockchains, the team found out that the smart contracts were deployed.
On the ETH blockchain, a token lock action could have been recognized. As a result, the validators will immediately evaluate this and send the information to the Harmony blockchain.
From here, a bridged token will undergo a minting process. Thus, a similar amount of tokens will be accessed once the validators relay the information again to the blockchain.
As of press time, the blockchain data shows no fund transfer occurred last night. No funds were moved to other crypto exchanges.
In the meantime, Harmony temporarily halted all pending transactions within Horizon Bridge. The team said that they are continuing the investigation regarding this hack.
Other Crypto News
Meanwhile, Tech Times reported that another crypto platform had suspended withdrawals on its system. Following the move from Celsius, CoinFlex came up with the same decision to halt operations because of the "extreme market conditions."
It should be noted that the prices of cryptocurrencies have been very unstable for the past weeks. Many investors are alarmed about the tight pressure in the crypto market.
As per CoinFlex CEO Mark Lamb, the customers should expect that withdrawals will return to normal as soon as possible. The company also stops trading coins at the moment.
Elsewhere, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said that Bitcoin would stay below $69,000 in the next two years.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry
