According to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, several crypto addresses have significant sums of money "stuck" or "forgotten" within large bridge contracts. In a post dated April 22, Arkham highlighted numerous accounts, including those associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Cryptocurrency Exchange Coinbase, and several DeFi whale-related wallets, that have amounts ranging from six to seven digits trapped in bridge contracts.
Arkham provided evidence in the form of screenshots depicting funds transfers between the Arbitrum and Optimism bridges to support their findings. Notably, one wallet that received 50 ether (ETH) from Buterin reportedly has $1.05 million stuck on the Optimism bridge for a duration of seven months. Although this represents only a fraction of Buterin's sizable cryptocurrency portfolio, the funds remain inaccessible on the bridge.
Another wallet, allegedly linked to Bofur Capital, shares the same name as a Celsius creditor and holds $1.8 million in wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) trapped on the Arbitrum bridge, untouched for 27 months. Meanwhile, pseudonymous founder Thomasg.eth purportedly has $800,000 worth of ether stuck on the Arbitrum bridge behind the centralized air transport solution Arrow.
Arkham also pointed out that six months ago, Coinbase attempted to connect $75,000 USD Coin (USDC) to Ethereum via the Optimism Bridge, yet the funds remain unclaimed on Ethereum's base layer. However, it's plausible that the owners of these wallets retain full control over the funds and choose to keep them temporarily locked in the bridge contracts.
Cross-chain bridges serve a crucial role in modular blockchain networks like Ethereum by enhancing data availability and security at the base layer while offloading transaction responsibilities to Layer 2. Nevertheless, bridges have become attractive targets for hackers due to potential vulnerabilities in automated smart contracts or centralized sets of validators.
For instance, in March 2022, North Korea's state-backed Lazarus Group orchestrated the $650 million Ronin Bridge hack by exploiting weaknesses in the transaction validators, gaining access to five out of nine private keys involved in the process.
