Verus-Ethereum Bridge Actively Being Drained — $11.6M Gone and Counting!

An ongoing exploit is bleeding the Verus-Ethereum bridge dry, with on-chain security firm Blockaid confirming $11.58 million drained so far. Peckshield broke down the haul: 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC have already left the bridge — a multi-asset drain that points to a vulnerability at the contract level rather than a single token misstep.

The word 'ongoing' is what makes this critical. Unlike post-mortem disclosures where funds are already frozen or traced, this exploit is live — meaning the damage figure is a floor, not a final number. Users with assets on or routed through the Verus-Ethereum bridge should treat exposure as active risk until a patch or pause is confirmed by the team.

Cross-chain bridges remain the single most targeted surface in DeFi. This attack joins a long list of bridge exploits — Ronin, Wormhole, Nomad — that have collectively cost the ecosystem…