Over $190 Million Drained From Nomad Bridge
A flaw in the Nomad bridge resulted in the loss of millions of dollars worth of crypto.
The Nomad bridge is a decentralized protocol that allows users to transfer digital assets between different blockchains, including Avalanche (AVAX), Etherium (ETH), Evmos (EVMOS), Milkomeda C1, and Moonbeam (GLMR).
Although details from Nomad are scarce, some point to a misconfiguration in the smart contract that the protocol uses to process messages as the cause, which has allowed millions to be drained from Nomad’s liquidity pool.
Initial outflows from Nomad’s bridge contract focused on wrapped Bitcoins (WBTC), which were affected, as well ass wrapped Ethereum (wETH) holdings and later the stablecoin USDC. Cryptocurrencies worth $190 million were withdrawn.
It is also unclear whether the attack was the work of one actor or several. Blockchain data suggests that the transactions may have been constructed to give the impression of multiple participants.
We are aware of the incident involving the Nomad token bridge. We are currently investigating and will provide updates when we have them.
— Nomad (⤭⛓🏛) (@nomadxyz_) August 1, 2022
Sam Sun, a researcher at crypto investment firm Paradigm, shared how he spotted the attack.
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“Although I had no idea what was going on at the time, the sheer volume of assets leaving the bridge was clearly a bad sign.”
Sun stressed that minimum technical knowledge was required to execute the exploit.
“You don’t need to know about Solidity, Merkle Trees or anything like that.”
All you had to do was find a transaction that worked, find/replace the other person’s address with yours, and then redistribute it.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is an experienced finance journalist and a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast. With over five years of experience covering the industry, he deeply understands the complex and constantly evolving world of digital assets. His insightful and thought-provoking articles provide readers with a clear picture of the latest developments and trends in the market. His passionate approach allows him to break down complex ideas into accessible and insightful content. Follow up on his content to be up to date with the most important trends and topics - stay ahead of the curve with CoinsPress.
