A blockchain connected to Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has been attacked by a $570 million breach, according to a Binance spokeswoman on Friday, the latest in a spate of crypto industry attacks this year.
In a tweet, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that tokens were taken from a blockchain “bridge” utilised in the BNB Chain, which was known as Binance Smart Chain until February. Blockchain bridges are methods for transferring bitcoins across apps.
According to Zhao, the hackers took around $100 million in cryptocurrency. BNB Chain subsequently stated in a blog post that the hacker withdrew a total of 2 million BNB, which is valued around $570 million.
In emailed remarks, a Binance official stated that “the majority” of the BNB remained in the hacker’s digital wallet address, while around $100 million was “unrecovered.”
Thefts, which have long plagued the crypto sector, have increasingly targeted blockchain bridges.
The BNB cryptocurrency, formerly known as Binance Coin, is supported by BNB Chain. According to statistics from CoinGecko, BNB is the fifth-largest token in the world with a market cap of almost $46 billion.
13 distinct bridge attacks, largely this year, resulted in the theft of around $2 billion in bitcoin, based on a report released in August by the crypto analytics company Chainalysis.
In March, hackers stole over $615 million from Ronin Bridge, which was used to transfer cryptocurrency into and out of the game Axie Infinity, in one of the greatest crypto heists on record. The heist was connected to North Korean hackers, according to the US.
BNB Chain’s blockchain was halted for many hours before reopening at 0630GMT, according to a tweet.
According to the blog post, BNB Chain was “able to prevent the problem from spreading” by contacting the blockchain’s “validators,” who are businesses or persons that check blockchain transactions. BNB Chain stated that there are 44 validators spread across many time zones, but provided no additional specifics.
BNBChain stated that it will implement a new “governance structure” to combat future hacks, as well as increase the number of validators.
BNB Chain is characterised as a “community-driven, open-sourced, and decentralised ecosystem” on the Binance website.
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