Another Crypto Exchange Hacked: $320 M Loss

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd483/dollar320-million-cry…

A cryptocurrency service in the emerging decentralized finance space, or DeFi, was exploited by hackers for around $320 million in one of the largest crypto heists of all time.

Hackers exploited the Wormhole DeFi platform for 120,000 wrapped ether (wETH) worth roughly $320 million from the Wormhole DeFi platform on Wednesday, the service announced in a tweet. According to blockchain records, 80,000 of the stolen wETH was sent to the attacker in a single transaction, costing $128 in blockchain fees.

Wormhole was developed by Certus One, and exists to bridge tokens between Solana, Ethereum, and other blockchains by locking them in a smart contract and minting “wrapped” tokens. After the hack, Twitter users speculated about the impact the hack might have across the DeFi ecosystem, since ether on Wormhole backs the corresponding bridged ether on Solana. According to Wormhole, “ETH will be added over the next hours to ensure wETH is backed 1:1.” After the hack, Solana’s price took a dip even as Wormhole said it had patched the vulnerability.