A new hack for 190 million dollars with a simple “copy and paste”

190 million lost in Nomad attack

Nomad has become the target of the latest nine-figure cryptographic attack.

We are aware of the incident involving the Nomad token bridge. We are currently investigating and will provide updates when we have them.

– Nomad (⤭⛓🏛) (@nomadxyz_) August 1, 2022

The cross-chain project’s token bridge suffered a major exploit on Monday, allowing a group of thieves to make off with about $190 million in stolen digital assets.

News of the attack surfaced on social media after security researchers noticed a high volume of assets leaving the bridge. According to Paradigm researcher samczsun a flaw in Nomad’s Replica contract allowed users to make a small deposit on the bridge and withdraw a much larger amount of funds they did not have. While most DeFi exploits are usually performed by skilled programmers with extensive knowledge, this hack required only a relatively simple cut-and-paste exercise. This meant that opportunists flocked to steal the bridge funds as soon as the news spread, resulting in what Samczsun described as a “frantic free-for-all“.

1/ Nomad just got drained for over $150M in one of the most chaotic hacks that Web3 has ever seen. How exactly did this happen, and what was the root cause? Allow me to take you behind the scenes 👇 pic.twitter.com/Y7Q3fZ7ezm

– samczsun (@samczsun) August 1, 2022

Although the total amount lost has not yet been confirmed, it is estimated that around $190 million worth of bitcoins , USD Coin Ethereum and other assets were stolen. This makes the attack one of the largest to hit the DeFi space to date. According to Defi Llama the project now holds only $12,750 in total blocked value.

The Nomad Team expressed himself on Twitter early Tuesday to say that she “was investigating [sur l’incident] and will provide updates “as additional information becomes available, but has not yet issued an analysis report.

We are aware of the incident involving the Nomad token bridge. We are currently investigating and will provide updates when we have them.

– Nomad (⤭⛓🏛) (@nomadxyz_) August 1, 2022

Nomad is one of several cross-chain projects aimed at enabling interoperability between blockchains. Its main product is the Nomad token bridge, which allows users to freely move their assets across the Polkadot, Ethereum, Evmos and Milkomeda Moonbeam parachain. The Nomad team raised $22 million in a round led by Polychain in April. That raise valued the company at $225 million.