Cross-chain platform AllBridge Core shut down its operations following a security issue that resulted in the loss of $1.65 million on Sunday. The hack specifically occurred within the AllBridge Core deployment on the Solana blockchain. The attacker transferred the funds stolen via the bridge from Solana to the Ethereum blockchain. The hacker swiftly transferred the stolen funds through privacy pools to cover his tracks.
The perpetrator executed a well-thought-out flash-loan strategy to influence the exchange rate in the pool for stablecoins. As per on-chain data, the hacker took out a loan of $1.12 million in USDC from the lending platform Kamino. Quick switching between USDC and USDT led to a price imbalance within the pool balance. This price imbalance created a favorable arbitrage opportunity for the perpetrator.
The exploiter then took the liquidity from the pool at exaggerated prices to gain huge profits. The profit earned after repayment of the Kamino loan was retained by the perpetrator as loot. The entire trade reveals major flaws in the mathematical equation of the automated market maker pricing system.
Recurrent Cross-Chain Bridge Attacks
This particular event marks the second instance of an attack on Allbridge Core via a flash loan hack, after a previous $573,000 heist targeting its BNB Chain pools in April 2023. In addition, pausing the bridge would mean that there are operational delays, with the process of sending funds across chains coming to a temporary halt. This would have implications not only for trading operations but would reduce the possibility of the liquidity needed by traders and institutions being moved across.
At the same time, there is a threat that long-term protocol outages will mean the loss of revenue streams due to reduced transactions, thus making users and liquidity providers consider alternative means of bridging. Finally, security pauses in cross-chain protocols act as a reminder about the security challenges associated with liquidity pools, thus requiring investors to change their risk management strategy for bridges.
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