A hacker or hackers stole approximately $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from Horizon, a block-chain bridge, in the latest heist.
The developers of Horizon, Harmony, tweeted Wednesday night that the theft occurred in the morning and they are working with “national authorities and forensic specialists to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds.”
Harmony did not provide many details about the heist but did single out an individual account it believes is responsible in a follow-up tweet.
USA TODAY reached out to Harmony for comment.
“We have also notified exchanges and stopped the Horizon bridge to prevent further transactions. The team is all hands on deck as investigations continue,” Harmony said in another tweet.
The company tweeted the theft did not impact the BTC bridge and the assets and funds in the decentralized vaults were “safe at this time.”
Blockchain bridges are significant in the crypto world because they allow users to send cryptocurrency from one chain to another. For example, a user on Bitcoin wanting to move assets to an Ethereum wallet would be unable to make the transfer without the bridge due to incompatibility.
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This theft comes at a time soon after the Justice Department announced they were cracking down on global cybercrime. In February, the department sent a clear message to hackers: “The long arm of the law can and now will stretch much farther into cyberspace than you think. If you continue to come for us, we will come for you.”
Contributing: Josh Meyer
Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hackers steal $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from Horizon