Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoreNews is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoreNews on whether to sell, buy or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk.
CryptoreNews covers fintech, blockchain and Bitcoin bringing you the latest crypto news and analyses on the future of money.
Individual Responsible for $320 Million Wormhole Bridge Breach Initially Qualified for $50,000 Airdrop
The individual behind the infamous $320 million exploit of the Wormhole bridge in 2022 was initially found to be eligible for an airdrop, potentially allowing them to claim $50,000 in newly introduced W tokens.
An inquiry carried out by the pseudonymous researcher Pland, as outlined in an X post on April 4th, disclosed that the Wormhole team failed to exclude several wallet addresses linked to the exploit that siphoned off $321 million in cryptocurrency from the cross-chain bridge.
Wormhole Exploit Addresses Temporarily Eligible for Airdrop, Later Declared Ineligible
Wormhole neglected to exclude the exploiter from the airdrop pic.twitter.com/xkkpDz9RAl
— Pland (@Pland__) April 3, 2024
Wormhole, a cross-chain protocol, serves as a token bridge enabling users to transfer and receive cryptocurrency across Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon, Avalanche, Oasis, and Terra without relying on a centralized exchange.
In February 2022, the Wormhole Bridge was breached by hackers, resulting in a loss of 120,000 wETH from the platform, which amounted to $321 million. This incident marked the largest DeFi attack of 2022, with the hacker exchanging wETH tokens for Ethereum, SOL, USDC, APE, SX, and others.
Subsequently, Wormhole awarded a white hat hacker $10 million for fixing a vulnerability in its core bridge contract on Ethereum shortly after the platform was compromised during the cyber attack.
However, in February 2023, Web3 infrastructure company Jump Crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Oasis.app executed a “counter exploit” against the Wormhole protocol hacker. Their efforts successfully recovered and returned a total of $225 million in digital assets to secure wallets.
SOURCE A: https://t.co/EXtHwdBpIH
SOURCE B: https://t.co/JF4TKftJPn
SOURCE C: https://t.co/sbMhdtrU61
SOURCE D: https://t.co/5emx1r8kfe
SOURCE E: https://t.co/ILLzx6SbtG
SOURCE F: https://t.co/y11GEbWKM8— DEGEN NEWS
(@DegenerateNews) April 4, 2024
Recent information from the Solana-based airdrop checker Airdrop.link, later reported by Degen News on April 4, indicated that four wallet addresses associated with the hackers were temporarily able to claim Wormhole’s airdrop.
Related Posts
The Solana block explorer Solana.fm identified all four eligible wallet addresses as being connected to the 2022 Wormhole exploit.
If the hacker had chosen to claim the airdrop, they would have received around 31,642 Wormhole (W) tokens, valued at $50,000 based on current market rates.
However, further investigation showed that the hacker wallet addresses were no longer eligible for the airdrop, suggesting that the Wormhole team may have promptly rectified the oversight.
Wormhole Announces Airdrop of Over 675 Million Tokens Valued at $850 Million
On April 3, Wormhole announced an airdrop of over 675 million new Wormhole (W) tokens, with an estimated value of $850 million based on current market prices, to eligible users.
Having previously shared details regarding the W token airdrop, Wormhole disclosed that more than 400,000 wallets are eligible to participate in claiming the tokens. Of the total allocation, 617.3 million W tokens have been designated for the initial community and ecosystem airdrop. This distribution aims to reward early users across Solana, Ethereum, and other compatible chains, as well as various crypto communities.
An interesting aspect of the W token is its governance capability, which allows holders to delegate their tokens to engage in governance votes. This delegation process is available on Solana or any compatible Ethereum-based chains, representing what Wormhole describes as the “first ever” multichain governance system.
Following the launch of the W token on Wednesday, the asset surged to a price of $1.66 before experiencing a significant drop. Currently, the price of W is at $1.31, reflecting a 20% decrease on the day.
Market data from CoinGecko shows that the asset’s market capitalization briefly neared $3 billion at its peak price but has since stabilized at nearly $2.4 billion, ranking it as the 54th largest digital asset by market capitalization.
The post Hacker Behind $320 Million Wormhole Bridge Exploit Initially Eligible for $50,000 Airdrop appeared first on Cryptonews.
