Wormhole Portal, a platform that helps users transfer cryptocurrency between the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, announced that a hacker had stolen more than $325 million worth of tokens in one of the largest hacks ever in the booming $192 billion decentralized finance space. Area regulators seem eager to crack down on after a slew of high-profile heists.
Wormhole, a blockchain platform that began last August and holds around $1 billion in deposited cash, alerted customers to a possible hack on Twitter, stating its network was offline for maintenance while the company investigated a possible attack. Wormhole announced later that its network had been hacked, claiming that roughly 120,000 wrapped ether tokens, which is a cryptocurrency that tracks the value of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, ether (and is worth a hefty $325 million) had been stolen.
Wormhole offered the attacker a $10 million bounty to return the assets via a message encoded in the Ethereum blockchain, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, which labeled the Wednesday incident the fourth largest cryptocurrency breach ever.
Wormhole did not immediately react to Forbes’ request for comment, but it did say soon before 7 p.m. that the network’s vulnerability had been “patched.” It’s still unclear who the suspected hacker is or how the robbery may have impacted Wormhole members.
Soon after the hack, analysts at blockchain security firm CertiK said it was the largest-ever attack on the Solana network and an “unfortunate reality” for the booming decentralized finance space, which, despite a growing number of similar hacks, has gained traction among investors alongside the broader cryptocurrency industry in the past year.
According to Elliptic, despite the fact that the space only began to gain traction in 2020, decentralized finance services have suffered more than $2 billion in direct losses owing to breaches and attacks.
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler stated numerous times that the decentralized finance business, often known as DeFi, requires more official monitoring. Traditional financial middlemen such as central banks and exchanges are generally bypassed by such platforms, which instead rely on blockchains and cryptocurrencies to complete transactions. According to Gensler, the tactics may violate securities, commodities, and banking laws, and he called on Congress last year to strengthen its oversight of the cryptocurrency industry, which he compared to the “Wild West.”
In August, hackers broke into Poly Network, a blockchain-based platform, and stole more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies, making it DeFi’s biggest attack to date. Eventually, that cash was refunded.