Verus DeFi Protocol Exploit Drains $11 Million

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2 hours ago

Author

Ahmed Barakat

Author

Ahmed Barakat

Part of the Team Since

Aug 2025

About Author

Ahmed Balaha is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.

Last updated:

May 18, 2026

Ethereum price is down, just barely holding $2,100, and a fresh protocol risk has just handed another bearish prediction. A cross-chain bridge exploit drained over $11 million just now, rattling sentiment at exactly the wrong moment.

⚠️ALERT: VERUS-ETHEREUM BRIDGE HACKED FOR $11.4 MILLION

PeckShieldAlert says the Verus-Ethereum Bridge was drained for 103.6 $tBTC, 1,625 $ETH, and 147,000 $USDC.

The attacker has already swapped the stolen funds into 5,402 $ETH, now sitting in a single wallet.

The exploiter’s… pic.twitter.com/OEr6frBLkB

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) May 18, 2026

The Verus-Ethereum bridge was the target. An attacker extracted 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC before swapping the haul into 5,402.4 ETH, worth just over $11 million. The exploit follows a brutal pattern: Kelp DAO lost $293 million in April via LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging system, and the Drift attack earlier this year added $270 million to the industry’s running tab.

All these bridge exploits consistently produce the largest individual losses in any given year. Oracle and protocol vulnerabilities remain a systemic threat, too.

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Ethereum Price Prediction: Reclaim $2,200 Before Bears Take Control

ETH is grinding through a bearish-to-neutral consolidation zone with limited near-term catalysts to reverse it. The current price is $2,110, with the RSI at 34, indicating weak overall momentum.

Key levels define the near-term range. Support sits just at $2,100; a close below that opens the door to further downside with few obvious technical floors. Resistance clusters at $2,200, then $2,250 if ETH manages a convincing breakout.

Bull case: ETH holds $2,100, volume picks up, reclaims $2,250, with analysts projecting $2,425 in average.
Base case: Sideways chop between $2,100 and $2,200 as the market digests the exploit and awaits ETF flow data.
Bear case: A close below $2,100 on elevated volume invalidates the consolidation thesis entirely, with the next meaningful support significantly lower.

On-chain liquidity and DeFi market structure suggest the exploit adds friction to any recovery. Rotation out of smaller DeFi names is already visible. ETH needs a catalyst, not just a bounce.

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LiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as Ethereum Tests Key Levels

ETH consolidating near six-week lows while cross-chain infrastructure keeps getting exploited raises an uncomfortable question for DeFi participants: what does a safer, unified liquidity architecture actually look like?

The current fragmentation of assets siloed across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana is precisely what makes bridges high-value attack surfaces. To put it into perspective, the $293 million Kelp DAO loss was a LayerZero messaging failure, not a smart contract bug.

https://twitter.com/getliquidchain/status/1988272292158403044?s=20

LiquidChain is a Layer 3 infrastructure project building what it calls the Cross-Chain Liquidity Layer, fusing BTC, ETH, and SOL liquidity into a single execution environment. The architecture centers on four components: a Unified Liquidity Layer, Single-Step Execution, Verifiable Settlement, and a Deploy-Once model that lets developers access all three ecosystems without redeploying across chains.

The presale token, $LIQUID, is currently priced at $0.0146, with $770K raised to date. The project is also currently giving a 1500% APY staking bonus only for early buyers.

Research LiquidChain and review the presale details here.