Millions in Crypto Assets Reportedly Stuck in DeFi Bridge Contracts Linked to Notable Figures
DeFi bridge contracts purportedly hold significant assets tied to whale wallets associated with entities like Coinbase and prominent figures like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, according to a crypto analytics firm, Arkham Intelligence.
In its report, Arkham has noted that several known whale wallets have their funds stalled for up to two years in bridge contracts. DeFi bridge contracts facilitate the movement of assets and data across different blockchain networks, enhancing DeFi ecosystem interoperability.
One of these whale wallets, linked to Buterin, is said to hold over $1 million in assets locked for over seven months, with other wallets allegedly revealing unclaimed assets going back two years.
However, all DeFi bridges do not function identically. While cross-chain bridges allow users automatic access to their assets on different chains, native bridge users must retrieve funds manually. In instances where users forget about their funds, these can stay unclaimed.
For example, a wallet tied to “thomasg.eth” appears to have $800,000 lodged in Arbitrum Bridge for nearly two years. In another instance, a Bofur Capital-connected wallet seemingly holds 27 wrapped Bitcoin worth $1.8 million stuck for over two years.
Moreover, a wallet associated with nonfungible token (NFT) user Mike Macdonald apparently has roughly $117,000 linked to CryptoPunks sales stuck in a contract. A further wallet receiving 50 Ether from Vitalik.eth, worth nearly $1 million, seems to have been unattended for seven months on the Optimism bridge.
A wallet tied to Coinbase holding approximately $75,000 in assets for about six months was also identified. Arkham suggests that Coinbase, likely, attempted to bridge $75,000 worth of USD Coin to ETH and forgot about it. The assets now wait to be claimed in the Optimism bridge contract.
While Arkham has notified the concerned owners, it reminds the community of the occasional nature of such cases due to the functionality of cross-chain bridges.