Cryptocurrency analysis firm Arkham Intelligence has discovered that millions of dollars worth of digital assets are currently sitting unclaimed on various bridges.
According to Arkham Reports, Millions of Cryptocurrencies Are Rotting in Bridges Forgotten by Their Owners
Arkham detected multiple accounts containing significant amounts of cryptocurrency left untouched in bridge contracts.
The key parties in question include players in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) sectors, as well as some companies with ties to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
“There are dozens of six- to seven-figure accounts that have been forgotten about in bridge contracts,” Arkham said. “If you are on this list, you may have lost several million dollars.”
Reported incidents include an Ethereum Name Service (ENS)-associated wallet called “thomasg.eth” that left approximately $800,000 stranded on Arbitrum’s local bridge for nearly two years.
According to Arkham, another Ethereum address affiliated with an organization called Bofur Capital holds approximately 27 Bitcoins (equivalent to $1.8 million) on the Arbitrum bridge, which has been inactive for more than two years. This address reportedly contains assets totaling over $14 million.
Similarly, an account linked to an NFT user identified as Mike Macdonald on the
This case highlights the difficulties large cryptocurrency holders may face in keeping track of assets as they transfer between different chains.
In one notable example, an account that received 50 ETH from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin left those funds untouched on the Optimism bridge for nearly seven months.
The total unclaimed amount is approximately $1.05 million. “Vitalik, if you have this address, you have a million dollars worth of ETH on the PSA: Optimism bridge,” Arkham wrote, addressing Buterin.
*This is not investment advice.