Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham has uncovered several cryptocurrency addresses containing millions of dollars that are either “stuck” or “forgotten” in two major bridge contracts.
In an X post on April 22, Arkham revealed that numerous accounts, including those connected to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and various DeFi whales, have significant funds trapped in the Arbitrum and Optimism bridge contracts.
One notable case involves a wallet that received 50 Ether from Buterin, with $1.05 million stuck in the Optimism bridge for the past seven months. While a substantial amount, this is just a small part of Buterin’s estimated $789 million in crypto assets.
Other instances highlighted by Arkham include a Bofur Capital wallet potentially linked to a Celsius creditor with $1.8 million in wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) trapped in Arbitrum for 27 months and $800,000 worth of Ether belonging to Thomasg.eth stuck in Arbitrum. Coinbase also attempted to bridge $75,000 in USDC to Ethereum via Optimism six months ago but has not claimed the funds.
While the funds remain unclaimed, the owners may still control the wallets and have chosen to store their holdings there temporarily. However, bridges have emerged as attractive hacking targets due to potential smart contract vulnerabilities, as evidenced by the $650 million Ronin bridge attack in March 2022 by North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group.
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