$24M Drained from AFX Trade as Arbitrum-Based Exchange Suffers Major Hack

Around $24 million in USDC was drained from AFX Trade, an Arbitrum-based decentralized perpetuals exchange that settles in USDC.

The theft occurred after an attacker compromised validator signing keys for a bridge operated by the protocol, allowing them to authorize a withdrawal of nearly $25 million worth of USDC.

According to blockchain data, the attacker then transferred the stolen funds to Ethereum and swapped it for around 12,467 ETH, roughly emptying AFX's total value locked.

Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, which maintains the Arbitrum network, stated that the native bridge was not hacked or exploited in any way, with the transaction originating from a third-party protocol.