Three crypto hacks in 24 hours drain over $35 million from protocols

Three separate crypto protocols got carved up within a single 24-hour window, with combined losses topping $35.5 million. The victims span three different chains, three different attack vectors, and one very familiar story: bridges remain the soft underbelly of decentralized finance. The largest hit landed on AFX, an Arbitrum-based protocol that lost approximately $24.15 million in USDC through a bridge exploit on July 22. BSquaredNetwork on BNB Chain saw $3.86 million in B2 tokens drained. And the Verus cross-chain bridge on Ethereum hemorrhaged $7.55 million, a wound made worse by the fact that Verus had already been exploited for roughly $11.58 million back in May. How each exploit played out The AFX breach was the headliner. Attackers siphoned $24.15 million in USDC from the protocol’s bridge infrastructure on Arbitrum, then moved the funds to Ethereum and swapped them into around 12,467.5 ETH. BSquaredNetwork’s exploit was smaller in dollar terms but arguably messier for holders. The $3.86 million in stolen B2 tokens were exchanged for more than 5,000 WBNB, which were then converted into roughly 1,128 ETH. The sell pressure from the dump sent B2’s price cratering more than 15%...