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Hackers steal more than $320 million in crypto through DeFi breach

Smart contracts, smarter hackers.

Hackers steal more than $320 million in crypto through DeFi breach

Hackers stole more than $320 million in crypto by breaching a network that connected multiple blockchians.

Image: Protocol

Hackers stole more than $320 million in cryptocurrency by breaking into an online communications bridge called Wormhole which links different DeFi blockchain networks.

Wormhole said thieves “exploited” the network and managed to steal 120,000 wrapped ether, the company said on Twitter. Wormhole is one of the popular communications bridges connecting the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.

Ronghui Gu, co-founder of CertiK, a blockchain security company which analyzed the breach, said the attack highlights the "growing concern around blockchain security.”

“The price that the most adventurous DeFi explorers pay is a heightened risk of falling victim to these exploits of innovative but ultimately unsecure platforms,” he told Protocol.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

hacksdefiwormholecryptocurrency
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