Blockaid Says Ankr’s Ethereum Bridge Attack Drained About $292,000

Blockaid said an attack on Ankr’s Ethereum cross-chain bridge had caused about $292,000 in losses and was still underway. The attacker used a small Optimism deposit to release assets held by the bridge, then sent them to a newly created address.

The attacker made five withdrawal calls on Ethereum, Blockaid said. Those calls unlocked all assets then held by the bridge and moved them to the new address.

In a follow-up, Blockaid said that several hours before the withdrawals, assets from multiple Ankr operator wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Linea were consolidated at an address beginning 0x4Ea. Funds from that address were then sent to a relayer address.

The sequence spans Ethereum, Arbitrum, Linea and Optimism: operator-wallet assets were gathered before the bridge calls on Ethereum, while the small deposit used to release the locked funds came from Optimism. Blockaid described the attack as still underway and estimated losses at about $292,000.