Arkham Identifies Millions in ‘Forgotten’ Crypto Assets on Cross-Chain Bridges

Tokens worth millions of dollars remain unclaimed in contracts associated with cross-chain bridges, according to experts at Arkham Intelligence, reports The Block.

Experts identified several such addresses belonging to major players in the DeFi and NFT sectors, including a presumed connection to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

“There are dozens of accounts with six to seven-figure sums […] that have been forgotten. If you are on this list, you may have lost several million dollars,” the analysts wrote.

Among the examples mentioned is a wallet with the ENS thomasg.eth containing ~$800,000 in an Arbitrum bridge contract. The funds have remained inactive for nearly two years.

An Ethereum address linked to Bofur Capital holds about 27 WBTC ($1.8 million), which also have not moved from the Arbitrum bridge for over two years. According to Arkham, the wallet contains assets worth over $14 million.

Another address associated with Mike McDonald’s account on X may have “forgotten” about $117,000 earned from selling CryptoPunks.

The publication suggested that such cases indicate that large cryptocurrency holders might face similar challenges in tracking assets when transferring them across various blockchains.

Another wallet may be linked to Buterin. The Ethereum co-founder sent 50 ETH ($1.05 million) to an address whose owner has not moved them from the Optimism bridge for seven months.

“Vitalik, if you own this wallet: you have a million dollars in ETH,” the specialists wrote.

Journalists explained that unlike cross-chain bridges like Hop, where users automatically receive their funds in another network, in some cases, assets must be requested manually. 

If a user forgets to do this, the smart contract cannot remind them. As a result, cryptocurrencies may remain unclaimed.

Back in 2022, Buterin described cross-chain bridges as vulnerable to 51% attacks.

Earlier, the Ethereum co-founder used the Railgun mixer, also employed by North Korean hackers Lazarus Group, and emphasized that “it’s okay.”