For builders examining cross-chain withdrawals, the reported Ankr bridge attack centers on how a small deposit on Optimism was used to unlock assets held on Ethereum.
Foresight News reported on November 9, 2026, at 16:44:03 UTC+8, citing monitoring by Blockaid, that Ankr’s Ethereum cross-chain bridge was under attack. Reported losses were approximately $292,000, and the attack was still ongoing at the time of the report.
Reported withdrawal sequence
According to Blockaid, the attacker made five withdrawal calls on Ethereum. Using a small deposit on Optimism, the attacker unlocked all assets locked in the bridge and transferred them to a newly created address.
Earlier wallet movements
In an update, Blockaid said that several hours before those withdrawals, between 10:08 and 12:06 on November 9, the attacker had consolidated assets from multiple Ankr operator wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Linea into a newly created address beginning with 0x4Ea. Funds were then transferred from that address to a relayer address.
The supplied report does not identify the underlying code flaw or explain why the small Optimism deposit enabled the withdrawals.