Crypto-Bridge Hacks Reach Over $1 Billion in Little Over a Year

The $600 million hack this month of a crypto “bridge” supporting Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn video game highlights the increasingly problematic nature of the arcane software used within the world of digital assets, blockchains and the metaverse.

Weaknesses in bridges, which allow tokens designed for one blockchain to be used on another, has led to more than $1 billion in stolen cryptocurrency in a little more than a year across seven different incidents, according to data compiled by researcher Chainalysis. In the case of the Ronin Bridge, which was recently hacked, the software was adopted to help Axie Infinity’s network accelerate transactions and reduce costs since the underlying Ethereum blockchain wasn’t able to handle the surging demand from gamers quickly or cheaply.