Crypto VC firm ‘jumps’ in to restore Wormhole’s supply after DeFi hack

• Jump Crypto has come to the rescue of the largest DeFi hack of 2022.
• It has replaced the 120,000 stolen wETH with its own supply of 120,000 ETH.
• Jump Crypto owns the developer of the Wormhole token bridge, the platform which was the victim of the DeFi attack.

A token bridge called Wormhole was the victim of a $322 million hack. However, within two days of the incident, crypto venture firm Jump Crypto has come to its rescue and pumped in the 120,000 Ether into the platform to replenish its supply.

To be fair, Jump Crypto owns Certus One, the developer behind the Wormhole token bridge.

The $322 million hack is 2022’s largest hacking incident targeting a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform so far. Not only did the hackers steal 120,000 wrapped Ether, they also spent three quarters of it — around $250 million — within the following 24 hours.

The platform had patched the hack and promised users that its supply will be restored. The chief concern for most, however, was how Wormhole would restore such a huge supply.

Token bridges allow users to transact across blockchain platforms, allowing crypto to be transferred from one to the other. Wormhole, for instance, allows users to transfer Solana, Ether, wrapped Ether, Polygon, and more.

The Wormhole hack

The Wormhole hack took place on February 2, at 6.24pm UTC. While Wormhole had also announced a bug bounty of $10 million to anyone who can help restore the stolen funds to the platform, it’s unlikely that this will happen.

By February 3, the attackers had redeemed 93,750 wETH. They spent a large amount of this to buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) like Meta Capital (MCAP), SportX (SX), Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and Finally Usable Crypto Karma.

Some of the tokens had also been converted to USDC, and about $44 million of the Solana tokens were left in the illicit wallet where the original transfer was made.