Chainalysis: $2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies stolen from inter-network bridges in six months

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Recent bridge hackThe Nomad project, during which hackers managed to withdraw assets worth $190 million, became the 13th hack in the industry since the beginning of the year. The total damage amounted to $2 billion.

According to analytics company Chainalysis,The first quarter of 2022 became one of the most profitable for hackers in terms of the volume of stolen funds. Thus, at the end of March, the internet bridge of the Ronin blockchain was attacked, during which the attackers withdrew $624 million in ETH coins and USDC tokens.

“Attacks like these are popular because internetworksbridges are central storage points for funds. It doesn’t really matter how exactly the funds are stored - blocked in a smart contract or held by a third-party centralized custodial service. In any case, if hackers gain access to the smart contract of the bridge, they gain access to the funds,” Chainalysis representatives explain.

Analysts emphasized that the overall design andThe functionality of cross-chain bridges has not yet been established, and developers often make mistakes when planning the architecture of smart contracts. This is what attackers take advantage of. If previously centralized cryptocurrency exchanges were the most popular target of attacks by hackers, now criminals have switched to DeFi projects, including cross-chain bridges. Therefore, decentralized finance projects need to “invest in security as soon as possible.”

Earlier, Chainalysis analysts reported that since February, pro-Russian armed groups, militias and volunteers operating in Ukraine have received $2.2 million in cryptocurrency donations.