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LINK $11.43 -4.34%
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Flash

Slow Mist Reveals Details of the Allbridge Cross-Chain Bridge Attack: Forged CCTP Messages, Flash Loans, Insufficient Minting Result Verification

The Slow Mist security team disclosed that the cross-chain bridge project Allbridge was attacked on August 19, 2026, resulting in a loss of approximately $190,000. Notably, this attack was not executed instantly; the attacker had begun laying the groundwork nearly a month prior and bypassed the verification mechanism by forging cross-chain messages. According to Slow Mist's analysis, on July 26, the attacker directly called Circle's MessageTransmitterV2.sendMessage function on the Polygon chain, constructing a cross-chain message disguised as a CCTP style message, claiming that a transfer of 1 million USDC existed, but in reality, no USDC destruction operation took place. Subsequently, Circle generated a valid verification proof (attestation) for this complete message according to normal procedures.About 24 days later, on August 19, the attacker waited for the Base Router to receive a real CCTP deposit, increasing the balance to approximately 191,000 USDC, and initiated the attack just 6 seconds later. The attacker utilized the previously forged message and verification proof to call Allbridge's receiveCctpMessage function. Due to the project's lack of critical verification, the system mistakenly recognized the false cross-chain message as a real deposit and recorded a limit of 1 million USDC. The attacker then temporarily borrowed approximately 809,000 USDC through an Aave flash loan, matching the Router balance with the forged amount, and used the internal credit record to call the transfer function, ultimately transferring out approximately 999,000 USDC (after a 0.1% fee). After repaying the flash loan and fees, the attacker netted a profit of about $189,800. The root cause of this vulnerability lies in Allbridge's failure to verify the identities of the sender and receiver of the cross-chain message, as well as not confirming whether USDC was genuinely minted and whether the balance actually increased, instead directly trusting the amounts and message hash data constructed by the attacker. Slow Mist emphasizes that on-chain message verification does not equate to the actual arrival of real assets. Cross-chain protocols not only need to verify the authenticity of messages but must also ensure that the message source is trustworthy, that the receiver is Circle's official TokenMessengerV2, and that asset accounting can only proceed after confirming the actual minting of assets and changes in balance. This incident once again highlights the security risks of cross-chain bridges in the message verification and asset settlement processes.

Star Bridge Capital's gold trading experienced abnormal liquidation, and the platform's Hong Kong office is empty

According to Caixin, Star Bridge Capital (SBCFX) experienced an abnormal liquidation incident in London gold trading. After the incident, the Hong Kong office of the platform was empty, and some investors faced huge losses. According to multiple investors, their automated trading in London gold (XAUUSD) derivatives through the Star Bridge Capital platform encountered extreme abnormal trading on the evening of August 19: the system automatically generated huge reverse short positions within just 1 to 3 seconds, followed by a rapid rise in international gold prices, leading to collective liquidations of accounts, with some accounts' funds reaching zero, and some even incurring negative debts.The so-called London gold liquidation refers to the risk of trading in the opposite direction of gold price movements, and due to leverage and other reasons, resulting in excessive losses, where the available margin in the investor's account is exhausted, falling below the maintenance margin ratio, leading to forced liquidation by the platform and total loss of principal.Affected investors estimate that this incident involves about 2,000 to 3,000 people, including a large number of mainland investors. Currently, some investors have reported to the Hong Kong police and requested the platform to refund 70% of the principal according to the previously promised "maximum loss of 30%" rule.Some investors claim that Star Bridge Capital offers leverage of up to 500 times, and some funds were deposited via USDT stablecoins, increasing the difficulty of tracking funds. Public information shows that Star Bridge Capital's business scope covers foreign exchange, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, etc., and it claims to be a licensed and compliant international trading platform.

UMX, incubated by Avenir Group under Li Lin, has launched public testing, bridging cryptocurrency assets and securities trading

On August 10, UMX (The Unified Market Exchange), incubated by Avenir Group under Li Lin, announced the launch of an invitation-only public beta. UMX is positioned as a crypto-friendly securities platform for global professional investors, supporting spot, leverage, contract, and options trading of crypto assets, while also supporting real US stocks, ETFs, and US stock options trading. The aim is to connect crypto assets and real securities trading on the same platform, enhancing the capital efficiency of cross-asset trading.The public beta focuses on opening the capital link between crypto assets and securities accounts, supporting functions such as stablecoin exchange transfers, non-stablecoin collateralized lending, fiat account withdrawals and deposits, and the mutual conversion of securities holdings and stock tokens. To enhance cross-asset capital efficiency, the platform introduces a cross-asset margin mechanism, allowing financial assets to be used as margin. During the public beta, BTC and USDT financial products will also be launched, with the highest annualized returns reaching 2.5% and 5.5%, respectively. This public beta is invitation-only, and users who have not yet obtained a public beta code can reserve the official version and participate in the early bird benefits program.
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