Circle and Tether Freeze Over $65M in Assets Linked to Multichain’s Suspected Exploit
In response to the suspected exploit of the cross-chain router protocol Multichain, stablecoin issuers Circle and Tether have taken action by freezing more than $65 million in associated assets. The decision came after significant unexplained outflows from the Multichain MPC bridge on July 6.
According to 0xScope, a knowledge graph protocol, three addresses that received at least $63.2 million in USD Coin (USDC) from Multichain are now under freeze. Additionally, a report from the Fantom Foundation reveals that over $2.5 million in Tether (USDT) has been frozen from two addresses labeled as “Multichain Suspicious Addresses” by Etherscan.
The abnormal transfer of assets on July 6 affected various wallets linked to Multichain’s Fantom bridge, as well as the ecosystems of Dogechain, Moonriver, Kava, and Conflux. The exact cause behind these unusual asset movements remains unclear.
Multichain Suspends Services Indefinitely, Assets Stuck on Source Chains
Multichain took to Twitter to announce the suspension of its current services without specifying a return date. A warning was issued urging users not to utilize the Multichain bridging service at present, as all bridge transactions would be trapped on the source chains.
According to Fantom protocol CEO Michael Kong, the transfer of funds in this incident does not follow the typical pattern of a hack, as the assets sent to the alleged attacker’s wallets were not subsequently moved elsewhere. Investigations into the matter are still ongoing.
Multichain serves as a platform for transferring tokens across different networks but has been grappling with technical and operational difficulties since its leadership mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago. Bridges like Multichain are often targeted by crypto hackers due to their vulnerability, with several similar incidents reported in 2022.
A recent report from blockchain security firm SlowMist unveiled that over $30 billion in crypto assets has been compromised in hundreds of incidents since 2012. The top five most common types of hacks include smart contract vulnerabilities, rug pulls, flash loan attacks, scams, and private key leaks.
Among the reported incidents, there were 118 exchange hacks, 217 hacks within the Ethereum ecosystem, 162 within the BNB Smart Chain ecosystem, 119 within the EOS ecosystem, and 85 hacks involving nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Over the past decade, crypto exchange hacks alone have resulted in losses exceeding $10 billion.