Evaluating only Wormhole Bridge’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Market collapse as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Security failure.
Key Events Timeline
FUNDING
Wormhole launched as Solana-Ethereum bridge; $1B+ TVL
PRODUCT LAUNCH
February 2: attacker exploits signature verification bug
FUNDING
120,000 wETH minted with zero collateral; $320M stolen
FUNDING
Jump Capital injects $320M to cover losses within hours
Wormhole was a cross-chain bridge protocol allowing assets to be transferred between Solana, Ethereum, Terra, and other blockchains. It was developed by Certus One and backed by Jump Capital. In February 2022, an attacker exploited a vulnerability in Wormhole's Solana smart contracts that allowed them to spoof signature verification — essentially minting 120,000 wrapped Ether (wETH) on Solana without depositing the underlying ETH. The attacker walked away with $320 million in one of the largest single DeFi exploits in history. Jump Capital covered the losses within hours, injecting $320M of capital to make users whole — one of the largest single bailouts in crypto history. Wormhole continued operating, but the incident exposed cross-chain bridge architecture as the industry's most dangerous attack surface.
Lesson
“A cross-chain bridge is the honeypot of DeFi: it locks enormous value, controls multiple blockchain state transitions, and is only as secure as the weakest link in its signature verification. Wormhole held $1B+ and got exploited via a single spoofed signature.”