Crypto Whale Wallets Have Millions Worth Assets Stuck in Bridge Contracts

Crypto intelligence firm Arkham Research informed wallet owners to review their addresses holding million-dollar balances stuck for several months.

Arkham Intelligence informed the crypto whales, including crypto exchange Coinbase and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, to retrieve the funds. 

Dozens of Crypto Whale Wallets Hold Assets Stuck in DeFi Bridge Contracts

The intelligence firm disclosed that dozens of crypto whale wallets have assets stuck on several decentralized finance (DeFi) bridge contracts. The assets are in the six to seven-figure range. 

Arkham disclosed that Ethereum lead developer Vitalik Buterin is among the whale wallets with an address holding assets whose value exceeds $1 million. The address has the assets unclaimed for seven months, while the other has unclaimed balances for over 24 months.

The report by the crypto analytics firm captures several whale addresses linked to leading entities and individuals. The firm indicates the funds are either forgotten or misplaced, urging owners to take action to recover the assets that run into several million dollars.

Boful Capital and Coinbase Forgot Assets in Bridge Contracts

DeFi bridge contracts involve software protocols facilitating asset and data movement across various blockchain networks. The existence of bridge contracts yields interoperability across the DeFi ecosystem. 

The funds stuck are possibly due to the nature of the DeFi bridges, which function differently. Cross-chain bridges allow users to access the assets on the other chain automatically. 

Arkham Intelligence explained that traders utilizing native bridges can only retrieve the funds manually. Native bridges lack the means to remind users to recover the funds. Such insufficiency could result in instances where the users forget the money. 

Arkham traced one wallet to “thomasg.eth” and held $800,000 in assets that remained stuck in Arbitrum Bridge for over 22 months. Boful Capital is among the whales whose 27-wrapped Bitcoin with a $1.8 million value has been stuck for over 25 months. The data from Arkham Intelligence shows the address holds assets valued at over $14 million. 

The report identifies another wallet associated with Mike Macdonald, which holds proceeds from nonfungible token (NFT) sales. The wallet holds $117,000 in assets attributed to the CryptoPunks sales and remains stuck on the bridge contract.

Arkham urged the account owner to review the account that sent five CryptoPunks. The analytics firm adds that the account that sent them owns the account where the proceeds were channeled upon the NFTs sale. 

Arkham Urges Crypto Whales Track Funds in Forgotten Addresses

The report reveals that a wallet benefitted from 50 ETH as the funds were forgotten for over seven months. The firm illustrated that the wallet holds ETH nearly $1 million in value on the Optimism bridge.

The US largest crypto exchange by volume trading, Coinbase, has an address containing $75,000 valued assets. The assets remain stuck for over 180 days. 

Arkham considers that Coinbase attempted to bridge USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin to Ether (ETH). Unfortunately, Coinbase appears to have forgotten that the assets are still stuck within the Optimism bridge contract for claiming. 

Arkham informed the whales that it links to the stuck and forgotten funds. The firm urged the whales to consider retrieving the funds if they forgot about the funds. 

Arkham Intelligence informed the community that such instances are possible owing to the unique design of the cross-chain bridges. It suggests that large crypto holders encounter challenges hindering asset tracking, particularly during cross-chain movement.