Important: this is a historical architecture case study, not a live bridge guide. Multichain ceased operations in July 2023 after an exploit involving more than $125 million in unauthorized withdrawals. Moonbeam’s Polkadot parachain and Moonriver were scheduled to end operations on July 31, 2026, a deadline that has passed as of August 9, 2026. Do not send funds through Multichain or treat the contracts described below as current production infrastructure.
The design remains useful because it shows how liquidity could move from an external blockchain into Moonbeam, then across Polkadot using XCM. It also illustrates why bridge security, token registration, reserve-chain rules and fee assets matter to anyone evaluating crypto investments or DeFi risks.
What the 2023 design was trying to solve
Polkadot parachains are separate blockchains connected through the Polkadot relay chain. An asset available on one network is not automatically spendable on another. A project therefore needs both a way to bring assets into the Polkadot ecosystem and a way to route them to the intended parachain.
Equilibrium’s 2023 design used Moonbeam as an EVM-compatible entry point. The example focused on EQ and EQD liquidity:
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- Multichain moved assets from supported external networks to Moonbeam.
- Moonbeam’s EVM held the bridged ERC-20 representations as XC-20-compatible assets.
- XCM and X-Tokens transferred those assets from Moonbeam to a recipient account on another Polkadot parachain.
The conceptual route was:
External chain → Multichain bridge/router → bridged token on Moonbeam → Moonbeam XC-20/X-Tokens transfer → destination parachain → recipientFor an investor, the important point is that this was not one transaction on one chain. It was a chain of trust assumptions. A user relied on the external bridge, the token’s mint-and-burn controls, Moonbeam’s EVM contracts, XCM routing and the destination parachain’s asset configuration.
How the historical token model worked
The 2023 article stated that Multichain controlled minting and burning for the EQ and EQD representations. That made Multichain’s bridge authority and MPC infrastructure central to the system. If the bridge’s authorization layer were compromised, the apparent token supply on Moonbeam could become disconnected from the underlying asset.
That distinction is easy to miss. A bridged token is not necessarily the same asset as the native token on its origin chain. It is often a representation backed by a custody, lockup or mint-and-burn arrangement. The value depends on whether users can redeem it and whether the bridge operator still controls the reserves and contracts honestly.
| Layer | Role | Key risk |
|---|---|---|
| External chain | Source of the original liquidity | Source-chain transaction, token and wallet risk |
| Multichain | Bridge and cross-chain message delivery | Operator, MPC and smart-contract compromise |
| Moonbeam EVM | Hosted the bridged ERC-20/XC-20 representation | Incorrect contract, approval or token mapping |
| XCM | Delivered the asset to a Polkadot parachain | Bad destination, reserve-chain or fee configuration |
| Destination parachain | Registered and credited the asset | Unsupported asset or failed XCM execution |
What the historical proxy contract did
The referenced Multichain repository included contracts/router/proxy/XcmTransferProxy.sol, whose contract was named AnycallProxy_XcmTransfer. It used Solidity ^0.8.10 and accepted an MPC address, a caller address and an X-Tokens address in its constructor.
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The historical repository identified 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000804 as the default X-Tokens precompile address. The contract exposed an execution path with parameters for a token, receiver, amount and encoded data:
exec(address token, address receiver, uint256 amount, bytes calldata data)In simplified form, the execution sequence was:
- Decode the AnyCall payload.
- Read the underlying XC-20 address using
IXC20Wrapper(token).token(). - Reject a zero address with
XcmTransferAnycallProxy: invalid xc20 token address. - Call the X-Tokens transfer function with the token, amount, destination and weight.
- If XCM execution failed, attempt to return the tokens to the supplied receiver.
The base proxy restricted execution to approved callers. Only the MPC-authorized account could add or remove entries using addSupportedCaller(address caller) and removeSupportedCaller(address caller). An unauthorized call reverted with AnycallProxyBase: only auth.
Those details explain both the convenience and the danger. AnyCall could initiate the Moonbeam-to-parachain transfer without requiring the end user to submit another Moonbeam transaction. But the same centralized authorization model made the MPC and bridge controls critical security dependencies.
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XC-20 does not mean an ordinary ERC-20 transfer
Moonbeam’s XC-20 assets are ERC-20 contracts in the EVM, so users can query balances and change allowances through familiar EVM calls. That does not mean an ordinary transfer() moves the asset to another parachain.
Cross-chain movement requires XCM machinery, such as an XCM pallet, X-Tokens interface or an associated precompile. The destination is represented by a Polkadot MultiLocation, not simply by an Ethereum-style address.
The reserve-chain relationship also matters:
- A local-reserve asset has its canonical XCM ledger on Moonbeam.
- A remote-reserve asset has its canonical ledger elsewhere and is represented on Moonbeam.
- An asset’s ultimate external origin and its XCM reserve chain are not always the same. Moonbeam’s documentation, for example, treats Wormhole-wrapped ETH entering through Moonbeam as local-reserve from the Polkadot/XCM perspective.
This affects how the destination chain accounts for the asset and which chain is responsible for issuing or redeeming it.
Why Multichain is no longer a usable route
Multichain suffered unauthorized withdrawals exceeding $125 million on July 6, 2023, and announced that it had ceased operations on July 19, 2023. Its bridge services should therefore not be used for new transactions, and its old proxy code should not be copied into a live deployment.
The failure is a practical reminder that bridge risk is often larger than the risk of the underlying token. A project may have a legitimate token and a functioning parachain, yet still expose users to a bridge operator capable of minting, releasing or redirecting representations of that token.
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| Historical assumption | What a current reader should conclude |
|---|---|
| Multichain can move liquidity to Moonbeam | Multichain is no longer an operating bridge |
| The old AnyCall proxy is a deployment template | It is historical code tied to Multichain’s MPC model |
| Any bridged ERC-20 can move to any parachain | The destination must register and support the asset and XCM route |
| Moonbeam remains a live Polkadot liquidity gateway | The Polkadot parachain shutdown deadline has passed |
What replaced the Moonbeam-specific route
Moonbeam’s later Routed Liquidity documentation describes a Wormhole-based design rather than a Multichain-based one. The architecture is different, although the same general lesson applies: an external bridge and XCM must be coordinated carefully.
Inbound route
For an inbound transfer, an application on the origin chain calls Wormhole’s transferTokensWithPayload. The payload contains a SCALE-encoded Polkadot MultiLocation, wrapped in the versioned format expected by Moonbeam’s GMP Precompile.
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The documented GMP Precompile address was:
0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000816The receiving function, wormholeTransferERC20(bytes memory vaa), verifies the Wormhole VAA, mints or releases the bridged asset and forwards it through XCM to the destination MultiLocation.
Outbound route
The reverse direction is not provided by simply calling the GMP Precompile. Moonbeam’s documented outbound pattern batches utility.batchAll with:
xTokens.transferMultiassetspolkadotXcm.send
The XCM message includes a Transact instruction that performs a remote EVM operation on Moonbeam. That operation generally approves the local XC-20 contract and calls Wormhole’s transferTokensWithRelay. The relayer and Guardian network then deliver the transfer to the destination chain.
Checks a parachain integration must pass
Moonbeam’s documentation identifies several prerequisites for an integration. These are useful due-diligence questions even when evaluating a project rather than building one:
- Is there an HRMP/XCM integration with Moonbeam?
- Has the destination parachain registered Moonbeam’s asset?
- Has it registered each XC-20 it intends to receive?
- Can the relevant asset pay XCM fees under the destination runtime?
- Does the runtime permit the required
Transactinstruction throughpolkadotXcm.sendor an XCM Transactor Pallet? - Is the reserve-chain relationship accepted by both sides?
Fee handling is a particularly important constraint. Moonbeam’s current documentation says local XC-20s cannot pay for XCM execution on Moonbeam in the outbound flow. In practice, the route generally needs the native xcGLMR representation to pay the Moonbeam-side execution fee. Holding the bridged token alone may not be enough to complete a transfer.
Moonbeam also noted that, by late 2024, the X-Tokens precompile used the Polkadot XCM pallet under the hood rather than the former X-Tokens pallet. A parachain using a different transfer pallet may need its own handling for reserve and non-reserve assets in one message.
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Incorrect MultiLocation
A MultiLocation is interpreted relative to the message origin. A location that is correct from the destination parachain’s perspective may be wrong when constructed from Moonbeam. An incorrect location can send funds somewhere unexpected or make them unrecoverable.
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Wrong account format
The destination account may need to be encoded as AccountId32 for a typical Substrate account or AccountKey20 for an EVM-compatible account. Choosing the wrong format can result in crediting an address the intended wallet cannot control.
Missing registration
A parachain may reject an asset that it has not registered. Registration may also be insufficient if the runtime does not allow that asset to pay fees or rejects its reserve-chain semantics.
Invalid XC-20 wrapper
The historical proxy expected the token to implement the wrapper interface and return a valid underlying token address. A zero address caused the explicit invalid-wrapper revert, but a token that technically responds with the wrong mapping could create a more serious accounting problem.
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Failed XCM or relayer delivery
The old proxy attempted to return funds to the receiver after an XCM failure and emitted ExecFailed(). That was not a guarantee of recovery: the return transfer depended on the token contract, the proxy balance and the surrounding bridge accounting.
In the later Wormhole-based flow, Moonbeam documented a manual recovery path: find the VAA associated with the origin transaction and submit it to wormholeTransferERC20. A recovery procedure is helpful, but it does not eliminate delays, contract risk or the possibility of an incorrectly constructed destination.
What this means for personal crypto risk
Liquidity bridges can make a token easier to use, but they add layers that should be priced into any investment decision. Before using a bridged asset, check the bridge’s operating status, the age and audit history of its contracts, who controls minting and burning, where reserves are held, how failed messages are recovered and whether the destination chain has formally registered the asset.
Do not assume that a token symbol proves fungibility. “EQ,” “ETH” or another familiar ticker can refer to multiple representations with different issuers, reserves and redemption rules. Verify the contract address and the canonical route from official documentation.
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For the Multichain-and-Moonbeam design specifically, the responsible conclusion is historical: it was an inventive way to combine EVM liquidity with Polkadot XCM, but its bridge dependency failed and Moonbeam’s original Polkadot deployment is no longer a current route.
FAQ
Can I still use Multichain to move assets to a Polkadot parachain?
No. Multichain ceased operations in July 2023 after unauthorized withdrawals exceeding $125 million. Treat old Multichain contracts and bridge interfaces as historical references, not as available infrastructure.
What was the role of Moonbeam in the original design?
Moonbeam acted as an EVM-compatible staging point. Multichain brought bridged ERC-20 representations to Moonbeam, where they could be handled as XC-20-compatible assets before XCM transferred them to another parachain.
Is an XC-20 the same as a normal ERC-20?
An XC-20 is an ERC-20 contract on Moonbeam, but moving it between parachains requires XCM-related machinery. A normal ERC-20 transfer changes balances on Moonbeam and does not by itself send funds to another chain.
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Confirm that the bridge is operating, verify the token contract and reserve model, check that the destination parachain has registered the asset, use the correct MultiLocation and account format, and hold the required fee asset. Never rely solely on a token symbol or an old tutorial.
The Bottom Line
The Multichain–Moonbeam design showed how an external bridge, Moonbeam’s EVM and Polkadot XCM could be combined to distribute liquidity across parachains. It is no longer a usable production route: Multichain shut down after a major exploit, and Moonbeam’s Polkadot shutdown deadline has passed. The lasting lesson is less about copying the old contracts and more about understanding bridge authority, XC-20 representations, reserve chains, destination registration, fee requirements and the possibility that a failed cross-chain message may not be recoverable.
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