Circle and Tether, two stablecoin issuers, have frozen over $65 million in assets following an alleged exploitation of the Multichain cross-chain router protocol. The freeze was implemented after an unexplained large outflow of funds occurred on July 6. Three addresses that received $63.2 million in USD Coin (USDC) from Multichain have been frozen, along with over $2.5 million in Tether (USDT) from two suspicious addresses. The reason behind the asset transfer remains unclear, and investigations are ongoing.
The incident affected multiple wallets and ecosystems, including Multichain's Fantom bridge, Dogechain, Moonriver, Kava, and Conflux. Multichain temporarily suspended its service and advised users not to utilize the multi-chain bridge. The transfer of funds does not appear to be a typical hack, as the assets sent to the alleged attacker's wallet were not further transferred. Multichain has been facing technical and operational challenges since its leadership faded a few weeks ago.
Bridges like Multichain have become attractive targets for cryptocurrency hackers, with several incidents reported in 2022. According to a report by SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, over $30 billion worth of crypto assets have been hacked in hundreds of incidents since 2012. The most common Types of hacks include smart contract bugs, pulls, flash loan attacks, scams, and private key leaks. Exchange hacks alone have cost over $10 billion in the past decade, highlighting the significant financial impact of such incidents.
