Multichain Breach Forces Circle to Freeze $63 Million in USDC

cryptonews.com:

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has frozen $63 million belonging to three wallet addresses associated with the hack of the cross-chain bridge platform Multichain.

In a Friday tweet, security firm PeckShield revealed that Circle has frozen $27.65 million, $30.1 million, and $5.5 million in three wallet addresses that received a significant outflow of funds from Multichain after the security breach.

The intervention came after $126 million worth of digital assets was mysteriously transferred from Multichain’s bridge deployments on Fantom, Moonriver, and Dogechain to various third-party wallets.

Multichain confirmed the security incident in a late Thursday tweet, revealing that they are conducting an investigation into the incident and expressed uncertainty about the cause. 

They advised all users to stop using Multichain services and revoke any contract approvals associated with the platform. 

"The lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address have been moved to an unknown address abnormally. The team is not sure what happened and is currently investigating."

The team further stated that all bridge transactions will remain suspended on their respective chains, without providing a specific timeline for the resumption of services.

Formerly known as Anyswap, Multichain enables users to transfer their cryptocurrency assets across different blockchain networks. 

This is not the first time Multichain has made headlines this year. 

At the end of May, rumors were spreading throughout the cryptoverse that the Multichain team has been arrested by the Chinese police.

Additionally, there are rumors that the Chinese authorities may have gained control over the network’s hardware and cold wallet, although these allegations were never confirmed.

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