Wormhole Token Bridge Lost $321M In Crypto Heist

Wormhole token bridge that links the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, seemingly an unimportant piece of tech for its function, lost over $321 million Wednesday afternoon. This is the largest attack to date on Solana. A competitor to Ethereum that’s progressively gaining grip in the non-fungible token (NFT) and DeFi ecosystems. The $600 million Poly Network crypto heist was bigger, but it involved cryptocurrencies rather than blockchain technology, which may explain why critics call this new development “pretty historic.” The heist occurred on Solana’s side. The discovery of a vulnerability on the Solana side has raised concerns that it could be similarly vulnerable to Wormhole’s bridge. The Wormhole team announced that they would replenish the Ethereum (ETH) supply to make sure wETH is backed 1:1, but it’s not clear where those funds come from or when. The assailant managed to hack into a smart contract and steal $321 million worth of wETH. The heist happened at 6:24 pm UTC on February 2nd when 120,000 wETH were minted by an attacker who then redeemed 93,750 wETH for ETH, equivalent to $256 million. These funds allowed them to buy SportX (SX), Meta Capital (MCAP), Finally Usable Crypto Karma (FUCK) & Bored Ape Yacht Club Token (APE). With the remaining WETH swapped for USDS and SOL on Solana, the hacker now holds 432,662 SOL ($44 million) in Solana wallet. CertiK, a smart contract auditing firm, rep...