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Altcoin Hack: Harmony Offers $1 Million for Info on Stolen Funds
HomeNewsAltcoin Hack: Harmony Offers $1 Million for Info on Stolen Funds

Altcoin Hack: Harmony Offers $1 Million for Info on Stolen Funds

Murtuza Merchant
Murtuza Merchant
January 31st, 2023
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  • Harmony offers $1 million bounty for info on theft
  • The company assures no criminal charges will be filed against attacker
  • Hackers have stolen tokens like Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), AAVE, SUSHI, DAI, Tether (USDT), USD Coin

Layer 1 blockchain protocol Harmony Protocol has offered a bounty of $1 million for information on a theft on the Horizon bridge amounting to around $100m in which tokens including Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), AAVE, SUSHI, DAI, Tether (USDT), and USD Coin were stolen.

"Harmony will advocate for no criminal charges when funds are returned," the company stated.

Harmony working with FBI to retrieve funds

Harmony had earlier identified the address of the culprit and had stated that its team was working with "national authorities and forensic specialists" to retrieve the stolen funds.

It had also said that it was "working around the clock" alongside the FBI and "multiple cyber security firms."

The Horizon bridge was stopped to prevent further transactions, and the company said that the exploit does not affect its trustless BTC bridge. "Its funds and assets stored on decentralized vaults are safe at this time," the company said.

Native token tumbles 10%

Harmony’s native token ONE, after nose-diving 10% following the attack, is currently trading lower by 5% at $0.023.

Launched in 2019 by Stephen Tse, Harmony Protocol is a proof of stake blockchain and its Horizon bridge is a cross-chain bridge, that allows users to move their assets from one blockchain to another. Users can move their assets between Harmony’s network and Ethereum, Binance Chain and Bitcoin.

Cross-chain bridges under attack

Cross-chain bridges have recently been attacked a number of times by hackers. In January this year, Qubit Finance’s bridge was hacked for $80m and a month later, bad actors stole $320m from the Wormhole bridge. In March, $622m worth of Ethereum and USDC were stolen from Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge.

Contributors

Murtuza Merchant
News Writer
Murtuza Merchant is a senior journalist, having been associated with various publications for over a decade. An avid follower of blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies, he is part of a crypto advisory firm that advises corporates – startups and established firms on media strategies.