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Blockchain Bridge Hacked for $320M in Second Biggest DeFi Attack

Blockchain Bridge Succumbs to Hackers, Loses Second Largest DeFi Heist of $320M Ether

Wormhole, one of the largest bridges between Solana and other blockchains, has been hacked for about $320 million, making it the second-largest DeFi hack to date.

This comes just days after hackers stole $80 million from the decentralized finance protocol Qubit Finance. Wormhole confirmed the exploit in a tweet on Wednesday evening and stated that it was working to get the network back up as soon as possible.

Wormhole is a protocol that allows users to bridge assets across blockchains. It has over $1 billion in total value locked and supports six blockchains, including Terra, Solana, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon. The bridge creates a wrapped version of the asset, such as wrapped ether (wETh), to its final chain.

It is not clear how the hacker exploited the network, but the hack took place over three different transactions around 2:00 pm EST on Wednesday, according to Etherscan data.

While only wETH has been affected, the portal bridge is currently down, and users have been asked not to initiate further transactions.

Wormhole has sent an on-chain message to the hacker, offering a $10 million bug bounty for exploit details and the return of the stolen wETH.

Wormhole has assured users that as soon as the network is back up, they will be able to redeem the tokens they sent into the bridge.

The exploit has caused concern in the DeFi community, as it is another reminder of the risks associated with decentralized finance. However, it is worth noting that Wormhole has taken swift action and is working to rectify the issue as soon as possible.

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