Nomad, a US-based cryptocurrency firm that describes itself as a “security-first” business that promises to keep users’ funds safe, has been hit with a $190-million theft, Crypto analytics firm PeckShield told Reuters. The platform took to Twitter to announce that it was aware of an “incident involving the Nomad token bridge”. For those unaware, a crypto “bridge” allows users to transfer tokens between blockchains. As per London-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, over $1 billion has been stolen from bridges so far this year. Nomad said it is presently investigating the matter.
As per PeckShield, the $190 million stolen comprises cryptocurrencies and stablecoins such as Ether and USDC.
“We are working around the clock to address the situation and have notified law enforcement and retained leading firms for blockchain intelligence and forensics. Our goal is to identify the accounts involved and to trace and recover the funds,” tweeted Nomad. The platform also thanked its “white hat friends who acted proactively and are safeguarding funds.”
Thank you to our many white hat friends who acted proactively and are safeguarding funds. Please continue to hold them until we provide further instructions on this thread.
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— Nomad (⤭⛓?) (@nomadxyz_) August 2, 2022
Last week, Nomad raised $22 million from investors including top US exchange Coinbase. Nomad primarily makes software that connects blockchains.
Earlier this year, in March, hackers reportedly stole cryptos worth $615 million from the Ronin Bridge, which is used to transfer crypto assets in and out of the popular blockchain-based game, Axie Infinity. Later in June, US-based Harmony said that crypto tokens worth $100 million was stolen from its Horizon bridge.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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