Allbridge Core has paused its cross-chain bridge after an attacker drained roughly $1.65 million using a flash loan and rapid swaps to manipulate the bridge's stablecoin exchange rate. The exploit, which targeted the platform's stablecoin pool, forced the team to halt operations while they investigate and work on a fix.
How the exploit worked
The attacker used a flash loan — a type of uncollateralized loan that must be repaid within the same transaction — to borrow a large amount of stablecoins. They then executed a series of rapid swaps that artificially altered the exchange rate on Allbridge Core's bridge, allowing them to withdraw more value than they deposited. The maneuver netted roughly $1.65 million before the exploit was detected.
Flash loan attacks are a known vulnerability in decentralized finance, often targeting liquidity pools with weak price oracles or insufficient slippage controls. In this case, the attacker exploited the bridge's pricing mechanism to profit from the temporary rate distortion.
What Allbridge did
Allbridge Core's team confirmed the incident and said they paused the bridge immediately after spotting the suspicious activity. They are now working with security firms to trace the stolen funds and identify the attacker. The team has not yet announced a timeline for reopening the bridge or any plans to compensate affected users.
The pause means users cannot currently transfer assets across the bridge, which connects several blockchains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Polygon. Those with funds stuck in transit will have to wait for the investigation to conclude.
Impact on users
The $1.65 million loss is relatively small compared to some past bridge hacks — the Ronin bridge lost over $600 million in 2022 — but it still hits Allbridge Core's liquidity providers and users who had assets in the affected pool. The platform has not disclosed how many users were impacted or whether the stolen funds came from its own treasury or user deposits.
Allbridge Core is a separate product from Allbridge, the original cross-chain bridge launched in 2021. The Core version uses a different architecture focused on stablecoin transfers. It's unclear whether the exploit affects the original Allbridge platform as well.
The team has not set a date for when the bridge will resume operations. They said they will share more details once the investigation is complete.
