Over $320M stolen in hack of blockchain platform Wormhole – CNET

Over $320M stolen in hack of blockchain platform Wormhole – CNET

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Online thieves made off with 120,000 wEth, or wrapped Ethereum, worth nearly $324 million.

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Hackers have stolen more than $324 million in cryptocurrency from Wormhole, the developers behind the popular blockchain bridge confirmed Wednesday.

The platform provides a connection that allows for the transfer of cryptocurrency between different decentralized-finance blockchain networks. Wormhole said in a series of tweets Wednesday afternoon that thieves made off with 120,000 wETH, or wrapped Ethereum, worth nearly $324 million at current exchange rates. The platform’s network was also taken offline for maintenance.

This is one of the largest crypto thefts of all time and the second-largest theft from a DeFi service, blockchain analysis firm Elliptic said in a statement. DeFi is any financial tool that uses blockchain technology to circumvent middleman institutions.

“The exploit appears to have allowed the attacker to mint 120,000 wrapped ETH on the Solana blockchain, 93,750 ETH of which was then transferred to the Ethereum blockchain,” Elliptic said in a blog post. 

Certus One, the developers of Wormhole, offered the hacker a $10 million “bug bounty” for the exploit details and return of the cryptocurrency, according to a message shared by Elliptic’s Tom Robinson.

Wormhole reported at 5 p.m. PT that the vulnerability had been patched and it was working to restore its network.

Certus One didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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