Steven Goldfeder, CEO and co-founder of Offchain Labs, used the incident to outline exactly how his team thinks about bridge risk management, and why the native Arbitrum bridge sits in a fundamentally different security category. Goldfeder confirmed the exploit originated entirely from a third-party protocol and that Arbitrum’s native bridge remained secure throughout the incident. Third-party bridges like AFX Trade operate independently, introducing their own trust assumptions, key management practices, and validator sets. AdvertisementGoldfeder, who holds a Ph.D. in applied cryptography from Princeton University, emphasized that Offchain Labs has improved bridge security through a combination of technical measures and user education. The exploit and its aftermathThe AFX Trade attack followed a depressingly familiar playbook.