Crypto startup Harmony's Horizon blockchain bridge was breached on June 23, 2022, and was drained of nearly $200 million. The hacker(s) managed to skim $98.3 million in ETH, $12.4 million in Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and almost $50 million in stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).

The latest incident highlights the constant threat posted by hackers to crypto platforms. Despite the addition of several safety features, miscreants continue to suck out hundreds of millions of dollars through elaborate schemes and attacks.

In Horizon's case, the rest of the loot, which amounted to roughly $20 million, was made of numerous tokens, including DAI stablecoins, Binance USD (BUSD), SUSHI tokens, AAVE, Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), and a few others.

The entire heist from the Horizon Bridge amounted to over $181 million. Fortunately, the platform was able to locate and recover a large portion of the stolen funds.

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The Horizon Bridge is a cross-chain protocol between the Ethereum, Binance and Harmony blockchains. The bridge uses smart contracts to facilitate token transfers between the three blockchains. It also acts as a bridge to Bitcoin, allowing it as a wrapped ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.

According to data from blockchain explorer Etherscan, the attacker made 11 transactions with a nefarious wallet. From there, they routed the tokens to the decentralised exchange (DEX) Uniswap, where they exchanged the altcoins for ETH. The hacker then sent the ETH back to the initial wallet.

“We have also notified exchanges and stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions. The team is all-hands-on-deck as investigations continue,” the official Harmony handle tweeted.

Harmony is working around the clock as we continue our investigation alongside the FBI and multiple cyber security firms.Updates will be shared as information is gathered.

— Harmony