AFX Bridge Exploit Drains $24.15M USDC as Attacker Buys 12,467 ETH
Blockaid said the on-chain logic was not bypassed, and five hot-validator signatures authorized the withdrawal before the stolen funds were swapped into about 12,467 ETH.
- On Wednesday, July 22, 2026, an attacker drained $24.15 million in USDC from a cross-chain bridge operated by AFX Trade on Arbitrum by compromising validator signing keys.
- Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder confirmed that the attack targeted a third-party bridge operated by AFX rather than Arbitrum's native infrastructure, which remains unaffected by the incident.
- The attacker bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped the funds for about 12,467 ETH, which now sits in a single wallet, according to on-chain trackers.
- Several protocols, including AFX, Verus, and Balance, suffered exploits within 24 hours for a combined total exceeding $35 million, according to security firms Blockaid and PeckShield.
- Compromised off-chain keys, rather than smart contract bugs, remain a primary cause for recent crypto security failures, necessitating better audits of administrative permissions and validator signing processes.
21 Articles
21 Articles
Arbitrum-Based AFX Trade Drained of $24 Million
AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange that runs on Arbitrum and settles in the stablecoin USDC, was drained of roughly $24.15 million on Wednesday after an attacker exploited a bridge it operates. The exploit was not a smart contract failure. Five of the AFX’s custody bridge’s hot-validator signatures approved the withdrawal, clearing the roughly two-thirds quorum the bridge requires, according to Legalblock security chief Vladimir S.. …
AFX DEX exploited for $24M USDC
A hacker has exploited Arbitrum’s AFX decentralized exchange for 24 million dollars. He had stolen funds from Abitrum to Ethereum and swapped them for about 12467 ETH and is currently sitting in the address shown in this screenshot. Another bridge gets hacked, every season it’s the same, bridges are always the weakest link in DeFi. […] The post AFX DEX exploited for $24M USDC appeared first on CryptoCoinDaddy.
AFX Trade Tells Hacker to Keep 30% of the $24M Stolen to Give the Rest Back
Key highlights:AFX Trade proposed an attacker a white hat deal in a bid to recover the funds.$24.15 million in USDC was drained from the protocol by the attacker.The exploit affected the protocol's bridge, while its trading platform was operational.Arbitrium-based AFX Trade offered an unusual deal to one of the latest hackers to strike DeFi. The entity stole about $24 million from the protocol. AFX is aware of an incident involving the AFX-opera…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 100% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
