Crypto Bridge Attacks Drain Estimated $31.69 Million

The cryptocurrency market has suffered another blow after two bridge attacks resulted in estimated losses of US$31.69 million within a short period.

Around July 22, at 21h30 UTC, an exploit was identified against AFX by Blockaid, which led to the withdrawal of 24.15 million USDC from its Arbitrum-operated bridge.

The team immediately halted the USDC custody bridge and attributed the issue to a third-party component, stating it did not affect their trading infrastructure or the main network.

An investigation revealed that social engineering and infrastructure compromise were likely involved in the breach, starting from a development environment before spreading to internal build and validation systems.

In another incident, a transaction on Ethereum showed the Verus bridge releasing 1.1374528 ETH along with seven token transfers, estimated at around US$7.54 million.