Crypto bridge heists swiping $1 bn spurring race for alternatives

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

digital tokens across blockchains — are creating opportunities for exchanges and other businesses to offer more secure alternatives. Crypto exchanges FTX and Coinbase Global Inc. are deepening their capabilities to provide bridge-like services on various blockchains, so users invested in Bitcoin or Ethereum can easily participate in other networks’ financial or gaming apps. FTX, for instance, launched a marketplace last year that allows customers to trade Solana-based nonfungible tokens, and to easily swap their Ethereum for the chain’s main Sol coin to buy them. Users can also deposit an Ethereum-based NFT and withdraw it on Solana via FTX — instead of a bridge. And more app developers, like institutional lending marketplace Maple Finance, are moving onto new blockchains, making bridges unnecessary for certain transactions. While some measures may have been in the works prior to the breaches, their urgency and attraction have increased after hackers siphoned more than $1 billion out of crypto bridges like Wormhole and Ronin — most of it in February and March. An April survey of 500 U.S. adults by OnePulse showed that 80% of respondents don’t trust crypto networks to protect their funds. While Ethereum-connected bridges still contain some $17.4 billion in value locked, that’s down about 17% in the past 30 days, according to tracker Dune Analytics.

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“It wouldn’t shock me if more users wanted exchanges as bridges given their expertise and bankroll,” Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer