Anonymous hackers have, on Friday, June 24, stolen about $100 million cryptocurrency from Harmony, a blockchain firm based in California. The cryptocurrency firm said the hackers exploited Horizon Bridge to perpetuate the horror – the bridge enables crypto traders to move assets between Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Harmony.
The heist is the largest in the history of cryptocurrency around the world.
“The Harmony team has identified a theft occurring this morning on the Horizon bridge amounting to approximately $100 million,” Harmony announced. “We have begun working with national authorities and forensic specialists to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds.”
Although Harmony said it is working with the FBI and several cyber-security firms to identify the hackers and recover the funds, the company made it clear that it is ready to negotiate with the hackers to return the loot. “The Harmony team is interested in communicating and negotiating,” the company wrote. “Please reach out at security@harmony.one to start a conversation. Communication can be anonymous.”
A blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic, said the hackers made away with $99.7 million in cryptocurrency assets between Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum blockchains. And that the heist included native tokens utilized by BNC and ETH as well as other stablecoins for sustaining a USD peg. Elliptic said the thieves have been able to swap the tokens for ETH through decentralized exchanges, which are usually adopted for such high-profile hacks.
The analytics firm also revealed that hackers have succeeded in carting away more than $1 billion in crypto assets from bridges this year alone – and this is large because large amounts of liquidity are stored on crypto bridges. In April, the FBI accused hackers alleged supported by North Korea of stealing nearly $600 million after hacking the platform of a major video gaming company.