Out of the Wormhole — March Newsletter

Wormhole
5 min readMar 7, 2022

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Einsteins — Welcome to the fourth edition of OOTW, summarizing what went down in January & February 2022!

TL;DR

  • Wormhole launches a fresh UI, logo & website — the bridge is now called “Portal”, while “Wormhole” is the protocol
  • Feb 2nd exploit —find the detailed incident report here
  • Wormhole is proud to offer a $10 million reward as part of the bug bounty program on Immunefi
  • Wormhole V1 bridge will be deprecated by 31st March — migrate now!
  • NativeSwap is a testnet implementation, executing native cross-chain swaps
  • Oasis joins Wormhole as the 7th connected network
  • Portal TVL hits $2.5B+ 🚀
  • Einsteins & Lunatics can now use Wormhole to send bETH between Terra and Ethereum
  • Convergence Hackathon: All-star list of Serum x Wormhole hackathon workshops and projects
  • You can now verify your Twitter PFP with bridged NFTs
  • Check out the latest addition to the liquid markets — more juicy rewards for UST farmers 👀

Table of contents

  1. New year, new look, new name
  2. Feb 2nd Exploit
  3. Bug Bounty Program
  4. Wormhole V1 migration
  5. NativeSwap: cross-chain swaps
  6. Oasis joins Wormhole
  7. Portal TVL hits $2.5B+
  8. Cross-chain bETH staking
  9. Convergence Hackathon
  10. Atlas DEX
  11. Verified Twitter PFP with bridged NFTs
  12. Liquid markets update

1. New year, new look, new name

Einsteins, we hope you’re loving our new slick UI, logo, and website revamp!

The token & NFT bridge is now called Portal (with a new website too!), while Wormhole is the protocol itself.

But why the change ser?

There has been a lot of confusion between the protocol and token bridge. Wormhole is more than just a token bridge, it is a layer 0 allowing a multitude of apps to be built on top of its core layer. Hence we saw the necessity to distinguish between the protocol itself (Wormhole), and the bridge that is built on top of it (Portal).

2. Feb 2nd Exploit

On Feb 2, 2022, an attacker exploited a signature verification vulnerability in the Wormhole network to mint 120k Wormhole-wrapped Ether on Solana. These tokens were not backed by Ether deposits on the Ethereum side of the Portal bridge. The attacker then bridged 93,750 of these tokens to Ethereum, withdrawing the unwrapped Ether from the contract. In the following hours, the vulnerability was patched, the ETH has been recapitalized, and the Wormhole network came back online and was fully operational again as of 13:29 UTC, Feb 3, 2022. The total duration of the incident was approximately 16 hours. Read the detailed Incident Report.

3. Bug Bounty Program

We believe it is vital to motivate white hats to help keep the ecosystem secure. That’s why we are now offering the crypto industry’s largest bounty for critical attacks — $10 Million.

Our bug bounty program provides users with an additional level of security and shows our long-term commitment to making the Wormhole protocol and the greater DeFi ecosystem more secure.

Read our blog post with all the details.

4. Wormhole V1 migration

Wormhole V1 will be decommissioned by March 31st, ensuring users have sufficient time to migrate their assets. There is a migration platform allowing users with V1 tokens on Solana to swap them 1 for 1 to V2 tokens. Check out our guide here.

Tokens available for migration include:

  • UST V1
  • HBTC V1
  • HUSD V1
  • LUNA V1
  • BUSD V1
  • FTT V1
  • SRM V1
  • DAI V1

If you have V1 tokens that are not listed above, you must use the V1 token bridge to send the tokens back to Ethereum.

Attention: Do not use the Portal bridge for V1 tokens, as this would result in double wrapped and thus useless tokens!

5. Devs, keep an eye on NativeSwap

NativeSwap is a testnet implementation of Wormhole’s generic messaging protocol, executing cross-chain native swaps between AVAX, ETH, MATIC and BNB. But why is this important? More details can be found here!

We’re excited to see what Wormhole developers can use NativeSwap for. With fewer limitations around cross-chain and native-to-native swaps, you’re free to experiment with your own routing using the DEX of your choosing. The possibilities are endless. Try it out for yourself today 🙌🏻

6. Welcome OASIS!

Oasis is the 7th addition to Wormhole’s ever-growing list of networks. The portal is currently the only bridge connected to Oasis, with their current TVL sitting at 84m in less than one month! Users can send over native USDC from Ethereum, USDCet, USDTet or ETH (from Ethereum) to Oasis and start earning rewards on YuzuSwap and DuneSwap!

7. $2.5B TVL: Tres Comma Club Baby!

The $1B announcement was just a few weeks ago!

Portal’s TVL has had immense growth over the last two months, with TVL currently sitting at $2.5B. Huge milestone unlocked ✅. Massive thank you to the builders, the Guardians, the projects who have integrated wormhole or wormhole wrapped assets, portal users and the community! We’ll see you all in the four comma club soon🚀!

8. Cross chain bETH staking

Users can now use Lido, Anchor and Wormhole to collaterize their ETH/stETH between Terra and Ethereum! This allows users to have more options for cross chain staking and earn rewards! Follow their handy guide here.

9. Serum x Wormhole Hackathon

During January & February, we’ve had a list of all-star speakers and technical workshops featured on the online Hackathon — Convergence! Want to find out more about Wormhole, Serum and the crypto 2022 market outlooks? Catch the replays here!

Dozens of projects have entered the hackathon, utilizing serum liquidity and Wormhole’s generic messaging protocol 🙌🏻. Check out all the submissions and all the winners.

10. Atlas DEX

Powered by Wormhole, Atlas DEX allows users to execute cross-chain swaps seamlessly from Solana to supported networks — Polygon, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and more! Its easy interface allows users to simply connect their wallet, pick the desired swaps and Atlas will handle the rest. Try it out today!

11. Twitter: Are you verified yet?

Twitter’s latest feature allows users to verify their NFT PFP on Ethereum. Using Wormhole’s NFT Portal, users can send their NFT cross-chain from other supported networks such as Solana to Ethereum and verify their NFT profile picture! No more users claiming your Degen Ape now!

A fellow Einstein has shared a quick guide below:

12. Calling all bridgooors: more liquid markets!

  • UST reward pools are live! Orca, Solend, Mercurial, and Atrix UST pools are live, allowing users to earn LUNA and more as rewards.
  • Oasis now has two DEXs supporting wormhole-wrapped tokens — YuzuSwap and DuneSwap.
  • Solend now supports FTT(wormhole) borrow and deposits. If you have soFTT, don’t forget to migrate your assets and start earning rewards on Solend!
  • Larix has launched two new wETH pools — wETH/USDC and wETH/SOL
  • LUNA(wormhole), AVAX(Wormhole) and BNB(Wormhole) is now available to trade on Mango Markets 🎉

It’s been an eventful period at Wormhole — and 2022 is just getting started! Don’t forget to follow our socials below and keep up to date with the latest news!

Twitter | Discord | Medium | Telegram | Website

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Wormhole

Wormhole is the leading interoperability platform powering multichain applications and bridges at scale. Build Multichain: http://wormhole.com