Arkham: DeFi Whales Abandon Millions in Bridge Contracts

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According to Arkham, there are multiple crypto addresses with millions of dollars trapped in bridge contracts, forgotten about or unmovable.

Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham reported on April 22 that there are several identified wallet addresses that are holding large amounts of funds in bridge contracts from two major platforms, which are either stuck or have been forgotten about.

One of the identified addresses, linked to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, has had $1.05 million stuck in the Optimism bridge for seven months now. This represents only a small fraction of Buterin’s overall cryptocurrency portfolio, which is valued at $789 million according to Arkham’s data.

Another wallet, belonging to Bofur Capital, has $1.8 million in WBTC trapped in the Arbitrum bridge for 27 months, and Thomasg.eth, founder of decentralized air transportation platform Arrow, has $800,000 in ETH stuck in the Arbitrum bridge.”

Arkham also pointed out that there are other unidentified addresses with similar amounts of funds stuck in bridge contracts, showing that this is a widespread issue within the crypto community.