The Wormhole Network Lost $320 Mln In A Hack

Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the smart contracts of the Wormhole bridge on the Solana network. They managed to withdraw 120,000 wETH, approximately $320 mln. Wormhole supports the Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Oasis and Terra networks and allows users to quickly and easily transfer assets from one blockchain to another. Assets are now distributed between hackers' wallets on the Ethereum and Solana networks.

The hack happened on February 2nd. The hackers minted 120,000 wETH on the Solana network. The 93,750 wETH were then used to exchange for a similar amount of ETH on the Ethereum network. Part of wETH was used to buy SportX (SX), Meta Capital (MCAP), Finally Usable Crypto Karma (FUCK), and Bored Ape Yacht Club Token (APE) tokens. The remaining wETH in the Solana network was exchanged by hackers for SOL and USDC. Assets on other networks supported by Wormhole were not affected.

According to smart contract auditing company Certik, a similar vulnerability could be in the Wormhole bridge on the Terra network. The platform team contacted the hacker through a transaction on the Ethereum network and offered a bug bounty of $10 mln for exploit details, and return the rest of the tokens and coins. Wormhole developers have announced that the vulnerability will be eliminated in the near future. The necessary amount of ETH will be added to the network so that the supply of wETH tokens returns to a 1:1 ratio.

Image: Coinphony