Nomad, a bridge that allows cryptocurrency holders to exchange their tokens between different blockchains, was the target of hackers who looted about $200 million from the business, the company and media say.
The attack was the latest to bridge the largely unregulated cryptocurrency industry.
“We are working around the clock to address the situation and have alerted law enforcement and retained leading companies for blockchain intelligence and forensics,” Nomad said in a tweet. “Our goal is to identify the accounts involved and trace and recover the funds.”
The company also said that a certain amount of the missing money was obtained from honest hackers who secured the funds.
“Thank you to our many white hat friends who took proactive steps to secure our funds. Please continue to hold them until we provide further guidance on this thread,” the company said.
There have been several attacks on crypto bridges this year.
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In late March, TheStreet reported that Ronin, the blockchain behind the online video game Axie Infinity, lost $625 million in a hack.
TheStreet’s Rob Lenihan explained that bridging “is where assets are locked onto one blockchain and then replicated onto another blockchain. The attacker [in the Ronin situation] used hacked private keys to fake fake withdrawals.”
And in early February, Wormhole, a bridge connecting blockchain networks, said hackers stole more than $323 million worth of cryptocurrency, TheStreet’s Luc Olinga reported.
Less than a week ago, Nomad said in a statement that several cryptocurrency companies had invested in it as part of a $22.4 million venture capital round.
Nomad, San Francisco, he said in that statement that “its primary goal is to create a safer crypto ecosystem where blockchains can seamlessly and securely communicate with each other.
“With more than $1.5 billion stolen this year by hackers exposing vulnerabilities in multi-chain bridges, the industry needs security-first solutions that maximize the security of users, funds and messages.”
