Verus Bridge Suffers Second Exploit in 66 Days, Total Losses Reach $19.1M

According to blockchain security researchers, the Verus-Ethereum Bridge was exploited on July 23, with attackers stealing $7.3 to $7.5 million in digital assets. This marks the second breach in 66 days; the contract was previously compromised on May 17, when attackers stole approximately $11.6 million, bringing cumulative losses to $19.1 million.

Backward Labs identified the root cause as an authorization bypass and protocol-state assumption issue. The bridge verified notary signatures and Merkle proofs but failed to check whether the requested payout amount matched assets actually locked on the Verus side. Assets drained included Ether, tBTC, MKR, USDC, Tether, EURC, scrvUSD, and roughly 220,357 DAI minted through a Sky collateral position.