Arkham discovers DeFi whales with millions stranded in bridge contracts

Multiple crypto addresses have been identified with large sums of money stuck or forgotten in bridge contracts, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham. Arkham revealed that there are numerous accounts with millions of dollars trapped in bridge contracts, including wallets associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and various DeFi whales. The firm provided evidence in the form of screenshots of fund transfers to and from the Arbitrum and Optimism bridges. One wallet that received 50 Ether from Buterin has had $1.05 million stuck in the Optimism bridge for seven months. Another wallet linked to Bofur Capital has $1.8 million in wrapped-Bitcoin (WBTC) stuck in the Arbitrum bridge for 27 months. Thomasg.eth, the pseudonymous founder of decentralized air transportation solution Arrow, has $800,000 in Ether stuck in the Arbitrum bridge. Additionally, Coinbase attempted to bridge $75,000 in USD Coin (USDC) to Ethereum six months ago, but it has not been claimed on Ethereum’s base layer yet. However, it is possible that the owners of these wallets have intentionally chosen to keep their funds in the bridges for the time being. Bridge contracts play a crucial role in modular blockchain networks like Ethereum, but they have also become attractive targets for hackers. The Ronin bridge hack, which resulted in a loss of $650 million, occurred after the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group gained access to five out of nine private keys held by transaction validators in March 2022. In response to such threats, a team of white hat hackers called ‘SEAL 911’ has been formed to combat crypto hacks in real time.