Hackers have stolen roughly $100m in cryptocurrency from a blockchain bridge, technology company Harmony said 23 June.
Harmony, which hosts the Horizon bridge that allows users to send crypto between different blockchains, said on Twitter it is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forensic specialists to identify who is behind the theft.
The company said it is working to retrieve stolen funds.
“We have also notified exchanges and stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions,” Harmony said. “The team is all hands on deck as investigations continue.”
Hackers have targeted blockchain bridges in the past.
In March, hackers infiltrated part of a popular online game’s cryptocurrency network, stealing more than $500m worth of crypto. And in the largest crypto hack of all time, hackers last year stole more than $600m worth of crypto from Poly Network, a decentralised finance platform, before returning the funds.
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Decentralised financial systems incurred at least $10.5bn in losses in 2021 due to crime, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, an estimate that includes stolen funds and price drops in crypto offered by systems that were hacked.
Representatives for Harmony and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Harmony shared on Twitter the account identification of what it says is the culprit. The balance of the account on the morning of 24 June was 85,867.27 ether, or roughly $104m. Harmony said the hack doesn’t affect its bitcoin bridge.
Harmony describes itself as an open, secure and fast blockchain with $1.1bn in crypto locked on-chain.
Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at [email protected]
This article was published by Dow Jones Newswires, a fellow Dow Jones Group service
.