{"id":65649,"date":"2022-08-11T10:32:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T07:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=65649"},"modified":"2025-09-06T21:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:08:17","slug":"cybercriminals-laundered-more-than-540-million-through-the-renbridge-cross-chain-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/cybercriminals-laundered-more-than-540-million-through-the-renbridge-cross-chain-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybercriminals laundered more than $540 million through the RenBridge cross-chain bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The RenBridge cross-chain bridge was used by criminals to launder more than half a billion dollars, according to Elliptic researchers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cross-chain crime is a growing challenge for AML. More than half a billion dollars has already been laundered through a single blockchain bridge, Elliptic research has found. <br \/>Learn more<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LiqhJddeDB\">https:\/\/t.co\/LiqhJddeDB<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/crosschain?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#crosschain<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/crypto?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#crypto<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/renbridge?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#renbridge<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 elliptic (@elliptic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elliptic\/status\/1557359861125488649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 10, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Experts found that since 2020 RenBridge has laundered around $540 million in proceeds from thefts, fraud, ransomware and other forms of criminal activity.<\/p>\n<p>Among them are crypto assets stolen from exchanges and DeFi services totaling at least $267.2 million, including $33.8 million, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/liquid-bitcoin-exchange-hacked-for-80-million\">stolen from Liquid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also, unknown actors sent to RenBridge part of the funds obtained from the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/hackers-drain-nomad-cross-chain-protocol-of-over-90-million\">attack on the Nomad cross-chain protocol<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The bridge is also frequently used by ransomware operators \u2014 at the time of the analysis, RenBridge had laundered more than $153 million in ransom payments from victims.<\/p>\n<p>The specialists called decentralized cross-chain bridges &#8220;an unregulated alternative to exchanges for transferring funds between blockchains.&#8221; They noted that criminals are increasingly using them, making asset tracing harder.<\/p>\n<p>Chainalysis estimated the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/chainalysis-estimates-2bn-in-losses-from-cross-chain-protocol-hacks-so-far-this-year\">damage from hacks of cross-chain protocols since the beginning of the year at $2 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\"\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"\u201cnofollow\u201d noopener\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The RenBridge cross-chain bridge was used by criminals to launder more than half a billion dollars, according to Elliptic researchers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1535],"class_list":["post-65649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-elliptic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"10","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65651,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65649\/revisions\/65651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}