Updated Jul 23, 2026, 7:07 a.m. Published Jul 23, 2026, 6:38 a.m. 4 min readBitcoin, Ethereum-linked protocols lose $35 million in multiple attacks hours apart. (Mika Baumeister/Unsplash)SummaryIn a six-hour span, at least three crypto bridges and cross-chain protocols were drained of more than $35 million, exposing recurring weaknesses in how these systems are designed and governed.Verus’s Ethereum bridge was exploited for about $7.54 million using the same contract path and bug class as a May hack, underscoring how unresolved flaws and redeposited funds left the system vulnerable to a second drain.The B² Network lost roughly $3.86 million after an attacker seized its staking contract’s upgrade authority, highlighting how compromised keys and permissions — not broken cryptography — remain the primary cause of major crypto thefts as AI-driven intrusion tools grow more capable.Crypto's bridges and cross-chain protocols are having a brutal day.At least three were drained in quick succession in a 6-hour period for a combined total exceeding $35 million, according to blockchain data assessed by CoinDesk and reported by security firms BlockAid and Peckshield.The perpetuals exchange AFX lost about $24.15 million from a bridge it runs on Arbitrum. The Verus-Ethereum bridge was drained of $7.54 million, its second hack this year through the same flaw. And B², a Bitcoin scaling network, lost $3.86 million from its token staking contract.The run of attacks share a common thread. None broke the underlying cryptography — each was either a logic flaw, where the code ran as written but the rules still let money out, or a compromised key that handed an attacker control it should never have had.The most damning was blockchain network Verus. Blockaid detected an exploit on the Verus-Ethereum bridge early Thursday that drained about $7.54 million in ether, tokenized bitcoin and a spread of stablecoins.🚨 Blockaid detected a @VerusCoin Ethereum Bridge exploit on Ethereum.An attacker used the bridge import path to trigger unbacked Ethereum-side payouts, draining ~$7.54M in ETH, tBTC, USDC, USDT, EURC, MKR, and scrvUSD from bridge reserves.More details in 🧵— Blockaid (@blockaid_) July 23, 2026