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About $2bn worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen across 13 separate cross-chain bridge hacks according to a report by Chainalysis.<\/p>\n
The blockchain analytics firm stated that the majority of the $2bn had been stolen this year with attacks on bridges accounting for 69 per cent of total funds stolen in 2022 so far. It added that the theft represents a major threat to trust in blockchain technology.<\/p>\n
It said, \u201cAs more value flows through cross-chain bridges, they become more attractive victims for hackers. Even more troubling is that bridges are now a top target for North Korean-linked hackers, who \u2014 according to our estimates \u2014 have stolen approximately $1bn worth of cryptocurrency so far this year, entirely from bridges and other DeFi protocols.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor perspective, South Korea\u2019s government-run statistical agency estimates the country earned $89m from official exports in 2020. The good news is that these services can take steps to protect themselves. And in the event of a hack, they can leverage the transparency of blockchain technology to investigate the flow of funds and ideally prevent attackers from cashing out their ill-gotten gains.\u201d<\/p>\n
The firm explained that cross-chain bridges were designed to solve the challenge of interoperability between different blockchains.<\/p>\n
According to it, a cross-chain bridge is a protocol that lets a user port digital asset from one blockchain to another. It said these bridges are an attractive target because they often feature a central storage point of funds that back the \u2018bridged\u2019 assets on the receiving blockchain.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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