On June 24, Harmony Network disclosed that a hacker had stolen $100 million and destroyed their horizon bridge. The hacker also destroyed the bridge. On the other hand, the layer one blockchain announced on June 26 that he is providing a reward of one million dollars for information leading to his rescue.

We are willing to provide a reward of one million dollars in exchange for recovering the monies from Horizon Bridge and sharing information regarding its operations.

This notification follows a similar strategy that has been used by crypto institutions that have been hacked in an effort to recover assets that have been stolen.

The announcement of the prize is probably just another attempt to persuade the hacker to hand over the money they made from exploiting the vulnerability. On the other hand, Harmony has declared that she “will not plead criminal charges when the cash is refunded.”

Is recovery possible?

The assault on the Horizon Bridge is one of the most significant to date and contributes to the growing number of cross-chain bridges in 2022. Nevertheless, the more important question is whether or not Harmony would be able to get back the money that was taken.

The Optimism Foundation successfully recovered monies taken in a hack that occurred earlier in the month of June. The hack resulted in the loss of 20 million Optimism (OP) tokens. The Foundation disclosed that the hacker wore a white hat, making them an ethical security hacker. In addition, the hacker pocketed 2 million tokens as a prize for their work.

Similarly, Poly Network was compromised to the tune of $610 million in August 2021 and has offered a reward of $500,000 for information leading to its recovery. Similar to the situation with Optimism, the hacker gave back what had been stolen and even received an offer of employment from Poly Network.

On the other side, the gains made via feats performed on the Wormhole and Ronin cross-chain bridges were not able to be recouped.

In the meantime, Harmony’s native ONE token experienced a crash upon hearing the news of the attack, although it has since partially recovered. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $0.024, representing a rise of 0.30 percent over the course of the previous twenty-four hours.

Hacking Spree Nets Millions Of Dollars

Hackers have recently been targeting cross-chain bridges with their attacks. In January, hackers stole $80 million from the bridge belonging to Qubit Finance; in February, they stole $320 million from the bridge belonging to Wormhole; and in March, they stole $622 million in Ethereum and USDC from the Ronin bridge belonging to Axie Infinity.

After a hack that occurred in early June and resulted in the loss of 20 million Optimism (OP) tokens, the Optimism Foundation was successful in recovering the stolen assets. The Foundation said that the hacker wore a white hat, which refers to someone who practices ethical hacking. In addition to that, the invader kept 2 million tokens for themselves as a bounty.

Poly Network was the victim of a $610 million exploit in August of the previous year, and the company offered a reward of $500,000 for its recovery. As was the case with Optimism, the hacker handed over the money that had been stolen and, to his surprise, Poly Network extended him an offer of employment.