AFX Trade offers exploiter $7.2M bounty to return 70% of stolen funds

AFX Trade, a decentralized exchange running on Arbitrum, just lost $24.15 million in USDC through a bridge attack. And now it’s essentially negotiating with the person who robbed it, offering them roughly $7.2 million to give the rest back. The white-hat bounty deal, proposed publicly by AFX head of growth Ken C, would let the attacker keep 30% of the stolen funds as a “bounty” in exchange for returning the remaining 70%. What actually happened The exploit hit on July 22, 2026, targeting AFX Trade’s custody bridge rather than its smart contracts or Arbitrum’s underlying infrastructure. The attacker compromised off-chain validator signing keys. Once inside, the attacker drained approximately $24.15 million in USDC from the bridge. They then moved the funds to Ethereum and swapped them for about 12,467 ETH, which was trading at roughly $1,937 per token at the time. AFX suspended its bridge immediately after discovering the breach. Security firms Blockaid and PeckShield both confirmed the attack and were quick to note that Arbitrum’s native bridge remained completely unaffected. Part of a much bigger problem AFX wasn’t the only victim that week. The exploit was part of a concentrated ...