Circle, the issuer of USDC, has taken action in response to a hack on the Multichain Protocol. Three accounts associated with the $126 million hack have been frozen by Circle. $63 million of the stolen money is in USDC.
The $63 million in USDC was transferred from Multichain to three USDC accounts. Once discovered, these accounts were blacklisted by Circle. Other tokens involved in the hack include $wETH, $wBTC, $DAI, $LINK, and $USDT.
Formerly known as Anyswap, Multichain is a web3 router that enables cross-chain interactions. Its goal is to connect different blockchains, including EVM chains like Avalanche, Layer 2 chains tied to Ethereum such as Polygon, and Parachains networks like Moonbeam on Polkadot.
Multichain, a prominent player in the cross-chain space with a network of 26 chains, has achieved remarkable milestones. These include reaching its highest Total Value Locked (TVL) at over $10.45 billion and maintaining a daily trading volume exceeding $100 million.
However, Multichain has faced criticism and concern for over a month now. Technical issues and the absence of its CEO have contributed to this unease.
Multichain revealed that the technical issues impacted cross-chain services for several blockchains, including PublicMint, Dyno Chain, Keychain, Dexit, Red Light Chain, Ekta, ONUS, HPB, Omax, Planq, and Findora.
Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao responded to the exploit by clarifying that it does not affect Binance users. He took to Twitter to explain that while Multichain experienced another hack, users on the Binance platform are not impacted.
As a precautionary measure, Binance has transferred all assets and suspended deposits. CZ also extended assistance to Multichain in resolving the situation.
To address DeFi hacks and theft, the Ethereum community proposed a solution: ERC 7265. This proposal aims to implement a “circuit breaker” feature on the blockchain, which can reverse token transfers in case of a hack.
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