Crypto analytics firm Arkham Intelligence discovered that millions of dollars worth of crypto tokens are reportedly languishing in various bridges, unclaimed by their owners.
It has identified several accounts where large amounts of cryptocurrency have gone unclaimed in bridge contracts. Those involved include DeFi and NFT players and certain companies, including a connection to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
According to Arkham, some notable cases involve large amounts of cryptocurrencies forgotten on bridges – applications that facilitate the transfer of assets between different blockchains.
“There are dozens of six- to seven-figure accounts that are tied up in bridge contracts and have been forgotten,” the company noted. “If you’re on this list, you might have lost a few million dollars.”
Among the reported incidents was a wallet with the ENS name thomasg.eth left about $800,000 in the Arbitrum’s own bridge, an amount that has been there for almost two years.
Another Ethereum address connected to an entity called Bofur Capital has about 27 packaged bitcoin ($1.8 million) that the company says hasn’t moved from the Arbitrum Bridge in more than two years. According to Arkham’s, this address contains assets worth more than $14 million facts.
Similarly, an account is linked to an NFT user identified on The scenario suggests that large crypto holders could face similar challenges in tracking assets as they move them across chains.
In one particularly notable case, an account that received 50 ETH from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin left those funds on the Optimism Bridge for about seven months. The total unclaimed amount is approximately $1.05 million. “Vitalik, if you own this address, PSA: you have a million dollars worth of ETH in the Optimism bridge,” Arkham wrote, addressed to Buterin.
Unlike cross-chain bridge protocols like Across and Hop, where users receive their funds automatically on the other chain, there may be scenarios with native bridges where users have to manually claim it. And if users forget to do this, the smart contract has no means to remind them, leading to scenarios where such users may forget their money.
Arkham reminded affected individuals and entities to review their transaction history and bridge activities to ensure all assets are accounted for.
