Three cross-chain protocols lost more than $35 million in six-hour exploit wave

Three cross-chain protocols suffered separate attacks within a six-hour period on July 23, resulting in estimated combined losses of roughly $35.5 million.

AFX Trade sustained the largest loss. About 24.15 million USDC was taken after validator keys were compromised, nearly emptying the protocol. The incident affected infrastructure connected to Arbitrum.

The Verus-Ethereum Bridge lost approximately $7.54 million through unbacked bridge payouts. B² Network separately lost roughly $3.86 million after an attacker compromised the upgrade authority for its staking contract.

The attacks matter because they illustrate recurring security weaknesses across cross-chain systems. In these incidents, the critical failure points included validator-key protection, bridge validation logic and privileged contract-upgrade controls. Compromise of any of these mechanisms can allow an attacker to authorize withdrawals, generate payouts without sufficient backing or alter contract behavior.

The affected protocols, estimated losses and identified compromise mechanisms are confirmed by the supplied event package. The totals remain approximate. The package does not establish who carried out the attacks, whether the incidents were coordinated, how much may ultimately be recovered or whether the final losses could change.