Nomad hacked for $190 million, amid cross-chain bridges lost $2 billion in 2022

US crypto firm Nomad has suffered a $190 million hack, blockchain analytics reported on August 3. Experts estimate the funds have been stolen from cross-chain bridges to $2 billion so far in 2022.

Nomad said on an official Twitter account that it was “aware of the incident” and was currently investigating without giving further details.

According to crypto analytics firm PeckShield, $190 million worth of users’ funds in crypto were stolen, including Ether and USDC.

Based in San Francisco, Nomad is currently working with law enforcement and blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs “to trace stolen funds, identify recipient wallets, and coordinate the return of funds,” the company stated.

Nomad, which recently raised $22 million from investors including Coinbase Ventures, OpenSea, and Crypto.com Capital, makes software that connects different blockchains. Ironically, Nomad described itself as a “security-first” business that would keep users’ funds safe, unlike its rivals.

The heist targeted Nomad’s “cross-chain bridge” – a tool that allows users to transfer tokens between blockchains.

As PeckShield revealed, a small proportion of the stolen coins were moved to a so-called “mixer,” which masks the trail of crypto transactions, while another $95 million is still held in three other wallets.

Lately, blockchain bridges have become the target of heists, which have increasingly plagued the crypto sector. According to London-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, over $1 billion has been stolen from cross-chain bridges so far in 2022.

Meanwhile, another crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, following the exploit of the Nomad Bridge, estimated the funds stolen this year from bridges to be $2 billion in cryptocurrency across 13 separate hacks. It also said that attacks on cross-chain bridges account for 69% of total funds stolen in 2022.

Crypto firm Harmony in June had suffered a theft of about $100 million worth of tokens from its Horizon bridge product.

This March, hackers stole around $625 million worth of cryptocurrency from Ronin Bridge, used to transfer crypto in and out of the popular NFT-based game Axie Infinity, which may be the largest exploit in DeFi history. The US authorities accused North Korean hackers of the hack.