Several decentralized finance (DeFi) bridge contracts are currently holding assets worth six to seven figures in various crypto whale wallets. Among these wallets is one belonging to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, which has been unable to access over $1 million worth of assets for more than seven months. Additionally, there are several other wallets that have had unclaimed assets for over two years.
According to a report from crypto analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, numerous whale addresses associated with prominent crypto figures and entities are facing similar issues, with their funds stuck in these bridge contracts for as long as two years.
DeFi bridge contracts are software protocols that enable the transfer of assets and data between different blockchain networks, promoting interoperability within the DeFi ecosystem. However, not all DeFi bridges operate in the same manner. Some cross-chain bridges allow users to automatically retrieve their assets on the other chain. Conversely, users utilizing native bridges must manually retrieve their funds, as the smart contract does not have a reminder system in place. This can lead to situations where users forget about their money.
Among the notable cases mentioned in the report, a wallet associated with thomasg.eth has had $800,000 stuck in the Arbitrum Bridge for almost two years. Another wallet linked to Bofur Capital holds 27 wrapped Bitcoin worth $1.8 million, which has been stuck for two years and three months. Additionally, a wallet connected to NFT user Mike Macdonald has approximately $117,000 in assets related to CryptoPunks sales on a bridge contract.
Arkham advised the owners of these accounts to take action, reminding them that if they own the account that sent CryptoPunks, they might also own the account that received the proceeds from their sale.
Furthermore, another wallet that received 50 Ether (ETH) from Vitalik.eth has been forgotten for seven months and holds almost $1 million worth of ETH on the Optimism bridge. A wallet associated with Coinbase crypto exchange was also identified, containing $75,000 worth of assets that have been stuck for nearly six months. Arkham suspects that Coinbase attempted to bridge $75,000 worth of USDC to ETH but forgot about it. The assets are currently awaiting retrieval from the Optimism bridge contract.
Arkham Research has notified the whale wallet owners about these forgotten and stuck funds, urging them to claim them in case they have overlooked them. They also reminded the community that these situations occur due to the nature of these native bridges.