Dozens of crypto whale wallets holding assets ranging from six to seven figures are trapped in various decentralized finance (DeFi) bridge contracts.
One of these whale wallets belongs to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who has over $1 million worth of assets stuck for more than seven months. Other wallets have been inactive for over two years.
According to a report by crypto analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, several notable whale addresses associated with prominent crypto individuals and entities have funds stuck in DeFi bridge contracts for up to two years.
DeFi bridge contracts serve as software protocols facilitating the movement of assets and data between different blockchain networks, promoting interoperability within the DeFi ecosystem. However, not all DeFi bridges operate the same way.
While some cross-chain bridges automatically transfer assets between chains, others require users to manually retrieve their funds. This manual process can lead to situations where users forget about their assets, leaving them stranded in the bridge contracts.
For instance, a wallet linked to “thomasg.eth” has had $800,000 stuck in the Arbitrum Bridge for nearly two years. Another wallet associated with Bofur Capital holds 27 wrapped Bitcoin worth $1.8 million, stuck for over two years.
Arkham Intelligence has reached out to the owners of the stuck wallets, urging them to retrieve their assets. They reminded the community that such instances can occur due to the nature of cross-chain bridges and the potential for users to forget about their funds.
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