# Nomad Bridge exploit: Nomad bridge drained of ~$190M in Aug 2022 after a June upgrade set its trusted root to 0x00; copycats joined in
Source page: https://vaultx.llc/hacks/nomad-bridge-exploit-2022 · VaultX incident report by Sentinel · first published 2026-10-31, updated 2026-10-31
- Date: 2022-08-01
- Reported loss: $190M (Reported roughly $190M (early reports said nearly $200M; some writeups cited $156M from the Ethereum contract). Figures vary by measurement method and timing, and no single figure is confirmed.)
- Attribution: Unknown master attacker. The sources describe the event as a vulnerability exploit followed by opportunistic copycats ('crowd looting'). Separately, a headline from econotimes reports that Israeli national Alexander Gurevich appeared in US court over charges tied to about $2.89M of the theft, and a TRM Labs headline reports a key suspect was extradited to the United States.
- Chains: Ethereum, Moonbeam (reported bridging of some funds)
- Status: contained
- Severity: 50/100
- Response score: 50/100
On August 1, 2022, the Nomad bridge was drained of roughly $190M according to multiple reports, with early figures near $200M. A June 21, 2022 upgrade to the Replica contract reportedly initialized the trusted root to 0x00, so unproven messages were accepted as valid. Once the first exploit was visible, many unrelated actors copied the calldata and redirected funds to their own addresses, and reported recoveries and legal cases cover only part of the losses.

**What happened**
According to the research notes, a routine upgrade to the bridge's Replica contract on June 21, 2022 left the trusted root at bytes32(0) / 0x00. This meant that messages with no valid Merkle proof could be treated as proven. On August 1, 2022, attackers called process() with fabricated messages and drained assets from the bridge contract on Ethereum.
Reporting says the exploit became a copycat event: after the first successful transaction was visible, others could reuse the calldata and replace the recipient address with their own. Coverage described it as a 'crowd looting' event involving many unrelated actors.
Nomad acknowledged the incident on August 2, said it was investigating, and said it had notified law enforcement and engaged blockchain forensics firms. Some participants reportedly drained funds to prevent malicious actors from taking everything, and white-hat returns followed.

**How it worked**
The bridge's message validation trusted a root value of 0x00 that was set by the upgrade's initialization. Because the default state matched the root the contract accepted, an attacker could submit a fabricated message directly to process() and have it pass as proven without any legitimate Merkle proof.
Because the flaw was reproducible, the calldata of a successful transaction could be copied and the recipient swapped. This turned a single configuration error into a mass-drain event involving many participants, according to the research notes.

**Where the money went**
Reuters reportedly said a small proportion of funds was moved to a mixer while about $95M sat in three other wallets early in the incident. BlockSec's tracing reportedly found about $17M moved into Tornado Cash from 16 profit addresses. Coinbase's analysis reportedly says some funds were bridged from Moonbeam and 100 WBTC was swapped for WETH on Uniswap. Recovery figures conflict: about $9M from early white-hat returns (Reuters/The Block); more than $36M returned from over 40 addresses (blockclarityhub); about $34.1M (ynetnews); and about $37.5M in nominal value per the FTC as reported in the research. The majority of funds was reportedly not recovered.

**The response**
Nomad acknowledged the incident on August 2, 2022, said it was investigating, and notified law enforcement. It engaged TRM Labs and other forensics firms to trace funds, published a recovery address, offered a 10% bounty for returns of at least 90%, and said cooperating white hats would not be prosecuted. The FTC later brought a case against the operator, citing inadequate security and incident response, and described repayment obligations. The research does not show a dedicated insurance fund announced at the time.

**Impact**
Reported losses of roughly $190M, with some reports citing up to nearly $200M, hit users and liquidity on the bridge and added to concern about bridge security across the market. Later analysis reportedly found over $186M in ERC-20 tokens stolen during the attack window. Users reportedly suffered large losses, and the FTC reportedly said users lost more than $100M. The research does not provide token-by-token price moves.

**Wallets linked to this case**
- 0x94A84433101A10aEda762968f6995c574D1bF154 (Ethereum, recipient (Nomad recovery wallet published 2022-08-03)) source: https://blockclarityhub.com/case-studies/nomad-bridge-exploit
- 0x56D8B635A7C88Fd1104D23d632AF40c1C3Aac4e3 (Ethereum, exploiter (publicly identified in reporting, unverified)) source: https://econotimes.com/Alexander-Gurevich-Appears-in-U-S-Court-in-2-89-Million-Nomad-Case-1767328
- 0xBF293D5138a2a1BA407B43672643434C43827179 (Ethereum, exploiter (publicly identified in reporting, unverified)) source: https://econotimes.com/Alexander-Gurevich-Appears-in-U-S-Court-in-2-89-Million-Nomad-Case-1767328
- 0xB5C55f76f90Cc528B2609109Ca14d8d84593590E (Ethereum, exploiter (publicly identified in reporting, unverified)) source: https://econotimes.com/Alexander-Gurevich-Appears-in-U-S-Court-in-2-89-Million-Nomad-Case-1767328

**Timeline**
- 2022-06-21 Upgrade to the Replica contract reportedly initialized the trusted root to bytes32(0) / 0x00, per the research notes.
- 2022-08-01 Exploit occurs; attackers reportedly call process() with unproven messages and drain bridge funds on Ethereum.
- 2022-08-02 Nomad publicly acknowledges the incident, says it is investigating, and says it has notified law enforcement.
- 2022-08-03 Reuters reports Nomad working with TRM Labs to trace funds and coordinate returns. White hats reportedly return about $9M shortly after the exploit (The Block headline dated 2022-08-03).
- 2022-08-05 Nomad reportedly offers a 10% bounty for returned funds if at least 90% is returned, and says cooperating white-hat hackers would not be prosecuted (date as given in research notes).



**Sources**
- docs.df3ndr.com https://docs.df3ndr.com/Book/4/16/7-nomad.html
- cloud.google.com https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/dissecting-nomad-bridge-hack/
- halborn.com https://www.halborn.com/blog/post/the-nomad-bridge-hack-a-deeper-dive
- rekt.news https://rekt.news/nomad-rekt
- veridise.com https://veridise.com/blog/audit-insights/bridge_misconfiguration_nomad_190m_exploit/
- certik.com https://www.certik.com/blog/28fMavD63CpZJOKOjb9DX3-nomad-bridge-exploit-incident-analysis
- coindesk.com https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/08/02/nomad-bridge-drained-of-nearly-200-million-in-exploit
- elliptic.co https://www.elliptic.co/insights/nomad-loses-156-million-in-seventh-major-crypto-bridge-exploit-of-2022/

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