Verus Ethereum bridge suffers second hack, $7.5 M lost

A hacker has stolen approximately $7.54 million from the Verus Ethereum bridge, exploiting what appears to be the same vulnerability used in a major breach just two months ago. The attack, detected on July 23, 2026, drained a mix of cryptocurrencies from the bridge's reserves, marking the second significant exploit of the protocol since May.

Blockchain security firms reported that the attacker abused the bridge's import mechanism to trigger payouts on the Ethereum network that were not backed by corresponding assets on the Verus blockchain. The stolen assets included Ethereum (ETH), tBTC, USDC, USDT, EURC, MKR, and scrvUSD. According to on-chain data, the funds were later converted into Ethereum and some were routed through the privacy mixer Tornado Cash.

This latest incident bears a striking resemblance to a previous attack on May 18, 2026, which resulted in a loss of roughly $11.58 million. Security analysts from firms including Blockaid, Halborn, and Merkle Science indicated that both exploits targeted the same bridge contract and entry path, suggesting the underlying vulnerability was never fully resolved. Following the May incident, analysis revealed the flaw was not a...