Nomad, a bridge that enables crypto holders to swap their tokens among different blockchains, was the target of hackers who pillaged about $200 million from the operation, the company and media reports say.
The attack was the latest on bridges in the cryptocurrency industry, which is largely unregulated.
"We are working around the clock to address the situation and have notified law enforcement and retained leading firms for blockchain intelligence and forensics," Nomad said in a tweet. "Our goal is to identify the accounts involved and to trace and recover the funds."
The company also said that a certain amount of the money that is missing was taken by honest hackers who were safeguarding the funds.
"Thank you to our many white hat friends who acted proactively in our safeguarding funds. Please continue to hold them until we provide further instructions on this thread," the company said.
A number of attacks on crypto bridges have occurred this year.
At the end of March, TheStreet reported that Ronin, the blockchain underlying the online play-to-earn videogame Axie Infinity, lost $625 million to a hack.
TheStreet's Rob Lenihan explained that bridging "is where assets are locked on one blockchain and then replicated on another blockchain. The attacker [in the Ronin situation] used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals."
And at the beginning of February, Wormhole, a bridge that connects blockchain networks, said that hackers stole crypto valued more than $323 million, TheStreet's Luc Olinga reported.
Less than a week ago, Nomad said in a statement that several cryptocurrency companies had invested in it as part of a $22.4 million seed venture-capital round.
Nomad, San Francisco, said in that statement that its "primary goal is to create a safer crypto ecosystem where blockchains can communicate seamlessly and securely with each other.
"With more than $1.5 billion stolen this year by hackers exposing vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridges, the industry is in need of security-first solutions that maximize the safety of users, funds and messages."
