Harmony, a U.S. cryptocurrency firm, said Friday that thieves had stolen around $100 million in digital coins from one of its key products. This is the latest in a series of cyber heists targeting a sector that has been long targeted by hackers.
Harmony creates blockchains for so-called decentralised financing – peer-to-peer sites that offer loans or other services without traditional gatekeepers like banks – and nonfungible tokens.
California-based Horizon said that the Horizon “bridge” was the victim of the heist. This tool allows you to transfer crypto between different blockchains. It is the software used in digital tokens like bitcoin and ether.
Companies in the crypto sector have been plagued by thefts for years. Blockchain bridges are increasingly being targeted. According to Elliptic, a London-based blockchain analytics company, more than $1 billion has been stolen so far from bridges in 2022.
1/ The Harmony team has identified a theft occurring this morning on the Horizon bridge amounting to approx. $100MM. We have begun working with national authorities and forensic specialists to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds.
More 🧵
— Harmony 💙 (@harmonyprotocol) June 23, 2022
Harmony stated that it was working with national authorities and forensic experts to identify the suspect and recover the stolen funds, but did not provide further details.
Harmony stated in a statement that it has a global team working around the clock to address the problem.
“We are currently working to narrow down the attack vectors and identify the culprit,” a spokesperson stated. Harmony had previously tried to contact the hacker via a transaction to their crypto wallet address.
Elliptic, which monitors publicly visible blockchain data, stated that hackers stole a variety of cryptocurrencies from Harmony including Tether, ether and USD Coin. They later exchanged these cryptocurrencies for ether via so-called decentralised exchanges.
Hackers stole approximately $615 million of cryptocurrency from Ronin Bridge in March. This was used to transfer crypto into and out of Axie Infinity. The United States connected North Korean hackers to this theft.
