DeFi whales have millions ‘forgotten’ in bridge contracts: Arkham

Arkham, a blockchain intelligence firm, revealed that numerous crypto addresses, including those associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Coinbase, and DeFi whales, have significant sums of money trapped or forgotten in large bridge contracts. These bridge contracts facilitate interoperability between different blockchain networks.

Specific Cases of Stuck Funds

• A wallet linked to Vitalik Buterin received 50 Ether (ETH) but has $1.05 million stuck in the Optimism bridge for seven months.
• Another wallet associated with Bofur Capital, potentially related to a Celsius creditor, has $1.8 million in wrapped-Bitcoin (WBTC) trapped 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.

Unclaimed Transactions and Potential Reasons

• Coinbase attempted to bridge $75,000 in USD Coin (USDC) to Ethereum via the Optimism bridge six months ago, but the transaction remains unclaimed on Ethereum’s base layer.
• There’s a possibility that the owners of these wallets still have control over the funds and have intentionally chosen to leave them in the bridge contracts for the time being.

Significance of Cross-Chain Bridges

Cross-chain bridges are essential for modular blockchain networks like Ethereum, as they facilitate data availability and security on the base layer while delegating transaction responsibilities to layer 2 solutions. However, bridges have become attractive targets for hackers due to potential vulnerabilities in smart contracts or centralized validator sets.

Notable Bridge Hack

The $650 million Ronin bridge hack, attributed to North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group, occurred after the group obtained access to five of the nine private keys held by transaction validators in March 2022. This incident underscores the importance of robust security measures in cross-chain bridge protocols.