On February 2, 2022, the Wormhole Network’s ethereum 
solana bridge was exploited for 120,000 WETH (wrapped ethereum) worth $320 million and the following day, the team explained that “all funds have been restored and Wormhole is back up.” The team has also said a “detailed incident report” will be published soon.
Wormhole Network Returns, Jump Crypto Replenishes Stolen Ethereum
- An attacker managed to siphon 120,000 WETH from the Wormhole Network’s ethereum solana bridge on Wednesday. The wrapped ethereum was worth $320 million when it was stolen and the Wormhole team had paused the network.
- When the funds were stolen, the Wormhole Deployer left an onchain message for the attacker that asked if they would return the funds for a $10 million bug bounty.
- The attack followed the recent Qubit cross-chain bridge vulnerability five days ago, which saw the loss of $80 million.
- The following day after the exploit happened, the Wormhole team disclosed on Twitter that the network was back up and running and the crypto funds were reimbursed.
- “All funds have been restored and Wormhole is back up,” the team tweeted at 8:39 a.m. on Thursday morning (EST). “We’re deeply grateful for your support and thank you for your patience. The team is working on a detailed incident report and will share it ASAP.”
- The Wormhole team says that the contract was exploited for 120,000 coins at 18:26 UTC, and at 00:33 UTC, “[the] vulnerability was patched.” Furthermore, at 13:08 UTC, “[the] ETH contract has been filled and all wETH are backed 1:1” and at “13:29 UTC the Portal (token bridge) is back up.”
- The Wormhole Network’s ethereum solana bridge lets both ETH and SOL users cross chains in a bi-directional manner.
- Cross-chain bridge technology has been a big theme in 2021 and into 2022, with a myriad of blockchains interacting with the Ethereum network or with alternative smart contract blockchains.
- While the Wormhole team did not publicly disclose how the funds were returned in their Twitter message, it seems the digital assets firm and Wormhole’s parent company Jump Crypto replenished Wormhole’s losses, according to a statement the firm published on Twitter.
- “[Jump Crypto] believes in a multichain future and that [Wormhole] is essential infrastructure. That’s why we replaced 120K ETH to make community members whole and support Wormhole now as it continues to develop,” the Jump Crypto Twitter account said.
What do you think about the Wormhole Network exploit and Jump Crypto replenishing the ethereum? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
