The decentralized crypto lending platform, Exactly Protocol, experienced a significant security breach today that resulted in the loss of approximately $12 million worth of ETH. This incident was attributed to an exploit that leveraged optimism and decentralized mechanisms.

Security experts from De.Fi revealed that the attacker employed a clever contract on the Ethereum network, which allowed them to move deposits onto the Optimism network before ultimately redirecting the stolen assets back to Ethereum.

In the aftermath of the bridge exploit, the overall value locked (TVL) within the Exactly Protocol experienced a sharp decline. Data provided by DeFi Llama indicates that the TVL dropped from a substantial $36 million to just under $26 million.

Furthermore, the native governance token of the protocol, known as EXA, faced a severe setback, losing over 15% of its value in response to the bridge exploit. Currently, the EXA token is trading at $4.91.

The incident underscores the vulnerability of cross-chain bridges, particularly due to the adoption of relatively new technologies. Hackers have increasingly targeted these bridges, with a staggering $2 billion reportedly lost to similar hacks in the past year, as reported by Chainalysis.