Verus-Ethereum Bridge Hacked for $11M as Cross-Chain Infrastructure Remains a Prime Target!

The Verus-Ethereum bridge was exploited on Monday, with the attacker draining 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC before swapping the haul into 5,402.4 ETH — worth over $11 million. The exploiter's address, flagged by PeckShield, still holds the full amount.

The attack fits a pattern that security researchers have tracked for years: bridges and cross-chain messaging infrastructure consistently produce the largest individual losses in any given year. According to Phemex, the two biggest recent exploits — Drift and Kelp DAO — both targeted infrastructure connecting chains or managing cross-protocol messaging, not smart contracts themselves. The April Kelp DAO attack alone, which exploited LayerZero's cross-chain messaging system, resulted in $293 million in losses and sent collateral damage rippling across the DeFi ecosystem.

The structural problem is clear: the more value that…