Abnormally large outflows from the Multichain MPC bridge platform have led to fears that an exploit may be underway. On July 6, significant withdrawals were observed from Multichain’s Fantom, Dogechain, and Moonriver bridges on the Ethereum side. The withdrawals amounted to over $102 million from the Fantom bridge, $666,000 from Dogechain, and $5 million from Moonriver.
Specifically, the Fantom bridge’s Ethereum smart contract experienced the withdrawal of 7,214 Wrapped Ether (WETH) tokens worth $13.6 million, 1,024 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) valued at $31 million, and $58 million worth of US Dollar Coin (USDC). These withdrawals totaled approximately $102 million in cryptocurrency.
Furthermore, the Dogechain bridge’s Ethereum contract saw a withdrawal of $666,000, which accounted for more than 86% of its total deposits. This left only around $100,000 worth of assets remaining in the bridge. The Multichain Moonriver bridge contracts witnessed the withdrawal of $5,872,661 worth of USDC and Tether (USDT), leaving approximately $700,000 behind.
On-chain investigators expressed concerns about the possibility of an exploit unfolding. Peckshield, a blockchain security firm, tagged the Multichain team in a tweet revealing the Fantom bridge transactions, suggesting they investigate the situation. Additional comments on Twitter referred to the incident as potentially “another massive hack” and highlighted the drained state of the Dogechain bridge.
While it is unclear whether the contracts were entirely drained or if users simply withdrew a substantial amount of funds, there are questions surrounding the security of the Multichain MPC bridge platform. Multichain is a multi-party computation (MPC) bridging network that verifies the locking and minting of assets between chains. The platform claims to distribute its cryptographic keys across multiple shards, which should prevent unauthorized withdrawals.
However, Multichain has experienced technical issues in recent weeks. The team reported problems due to unforeseen circumstances, including the CEO’s absence, leading to delayed transactions. Binance even suspended withdrawals of certain Multichain derivative tokens because of the network’s inability to process transactions promptly.
At the time of publication, Cointelegraph had not received a response from the Multichain team regarding the situation. Notably, Multichain’s last Twitter post was on June 29, adding to concerns about the current state of the platform.
The significant outflows from the Multichain MPC bridge and the lingering questions surrounding its security highlight the importance of robust cryptocurrency security measures and the need for vigilance within the DeFi ecosystem.