AFX Trade, a perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum, was hacked on July 23, with about $24 million in USDC stolen. According to Techub, citing Decrypt, the attacker exploited a vulnerability in the project’s USDC custodial bridge and drained the funds. After detecting unusual activity, the team suspended bridge services immediately. AFX Trade said it has activated its incident response process, and its security team is investigating the root cause of the breach. The protocol also offered the attacker 30% of the stolen funds as a white hat bounty in exchange for returning the remaining amount. Services related to the protocol remain suspended at the time of writing. The report did not disclose additional technical details about the exploit or say when services might be restored. The case adds to the list of bridge-related security incidents affecting crypto platforms.

Techub, citing CoinDesk, reported that three crypto projects — AFX_XYZ, VerusCoin and BSquaredNetwork — were exploited on the same day, with combined losses of about $35.55 million. AFX_XYZ accounted for the biggest share at $24.15 million, while VerusCoin lost $7.55 million and BSquaredNetwork lost $3.86 million. Based on the disclosed figures, AFX_XYZ represented nearly 70% of the total damage, making it the hardest-hit protocol among the three. As of now, none of the teams has disclosed the exact attack vector or provided an update on fund recovery. The report said users connected to the affected projects should keep track of follow-up announcements and take steps to protect their assets.

Crypto markets opened the day with a heavy policy, exchange and security agenda. U.S. Senate Republicans released a new 616-page version of the Clarity bill, adding ethics provisions that would bar public officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, while allowing investment holdings under disclosure and divestment or blind-trust requirements. The ethics section includes a sunset date of Jan. 20, 2029, and the proposal is still being negotiated ahead of a possible Senate vote as early as next week. Elsewhere, BitMEX said it will shut down on Sept. 23, 2026 at 12:00 Beijing time and has already stopped registering new users. The exchange said new position openings will be restricted from Aug. 26, 2026, with users only allowed to reduce positions before any remaining positions are forcibly closed at shutdown. Kazakhstan also approved rules for “strategic digital mining,” tying electricity allocations to transfers of part of miners’ output into a structure that will help build a national strategic crypto reserve. On the security front, the AFX-operated cross-chain bridge in the Arbitrum ecosystem was attacked at 5:30 a.m. Beijing time on July 23, with about 24.15 million USDC stolen. Blockaid said it is working with the Arbitrum team and affected protocols to help freeze funds, while Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder said Arbitrum’s native bridge was not exploited. Grayscale, Bitwise and CryptoQuant analysts also published fresh views on Bitcoin market conditions, ETF flows and signs of a possible bottom.

A cluster of crypto protocol attacks unfolded within hours on July 23, affecting four projects tied to the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems and resulting in combined losses of more than $35 million, according to CoinDesk. The biggest loss came from AFX Trade, a derivatives protocol on Arbitrum, where BlockAid said attackers obtained the private key for the project’s cross-chain bridge and moved roughly $24 million in assets. Verus, an Ethereum cross-chain bridge protocol, lost about $7.54 million after what BlockAid described as a logic flaw in its bridge import path was exploited again. The stolen assets included ETH, tBTC, USDC, USDT, EURC, MKR and scrvUSD. On the Bitcoin side, B² Network lost around $3.86 million after the attacker gained upgrade authority over its token staking contract, according to Lookonchain, while Balance lost about $1 million after its bitcoin vault was drained, triggering a roughly 99% collapse in the price of its stablecoin. BlockAid, PeckShield and Lookonchain tracked the related fund flows. B² Network said it had suspended staking and would fully compensate affected users.

Three separate hacking incidents were recorded on July 23, with combined losses of about $35.55 million, according to monitoring data cited by BlockBeats from Lookonchain. The largest loss came from AFX Trade, which was reported to have lost about $24.15 million. VerusCoin’s Ethereum bridge was the second-largest incident, with losses of about $7.55 million. B² Network was also hit, with losses of about $3.86 million. The figures reflect the total impact from the three incidents tracked on the day in question. No additional details on the attack methods or recovery status were provided in the source update.

A broad set of market, security, regulatory, and infrastructure developments emerged between late July 22 and early July 23. Binance said it will add 10 tokenized bStocks securities as eligible collateral and open margin trading for their related pairs, while Upbit designated Zilliqa’s ZIL as a closely watched asset and suspended deposits and withdrawals after security concerns tied to its wallet or distributed ledger. Zilliqa then disclosed a serious Ledger app nonce flaw affecting native, non-EVM ZIL transactions, saying private keys could be recovered from around five affected signatures. Security incidents also hit B² Network and an AFX-operated bridge in the Arbitrum ecosystem. Elsewhere, Payward said xStocks is expanding tokenized equities beyond U.S. names, Sui launched the Hashi Bitcoin interoperability testnet, BNY Mellon outlined plans for round-the-clock Treasury settlement, and several firms including OpenAI, Alphabet, Revolut, Tesla, and Samsung disclosed major product, spending, or financial updates. The flow also included U.S. legislative movement on the Clarity bill, SEC commentary on on-chain vaults and lending strategies, whale ETH purchases, and fresh market views from Grayscale and Bitwise.

AFX has named industry veteran Ken C as Head of Growth, tasking him with trader acquisition, ecosystem partnerships, and community expansion as the sovereign L1 scales its on-chain derivatives network after mainnet launch.

Arbitrum ecosystem protocol AFX was attacked at 5:30 a.m. Beijing time, with the incident targeting a cross-chain bridge operated by the protocol, according to Blockaid. The security firm said roughly 24.15 million USDC had been stolen as of its update. Blockaid said it is working with the Arbitrum team to respond to the incident, communicating with the affected protocol and helping freeze the stolen funds. The disclosure places the event among the larger bridge-related thefts reported in the ecosystem, though the available details remain limited. Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, said on X that the Arbitrum team is aware of reports of a bridge attack on Arbitrum and is investigating. He added that the transactions came from a third-party protocol and said Arbitrum’s native bridge was not attacked or exploited. Goldfeder said the team would coordinate with the third-party team and share more details.