Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange giant, momentarily shut down its blockchain network after cyber hackers stole BNB tokens valued at about $570 million, as reported first by CNBC.
The crypto company reported on Thursday, Oct. 6, that a cross-chain bridge connecting with its BNB Chain had been compromised, allowing hackers to remove BNB coins from the network.
This form of cyber hacking is called cross-chain bridges because they enable the movement of tokens from one blockchain to another.
While a team of developers looked into the incident, the company announced it had collaborated with transaction validators to freeze the production of new blocks on BSC and suspend all transaction processing.
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world based on trading volume, as per CNBC.
"An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC," Changpeng Zhao, Binance's CEO, wrote in a tweet.
BNB Chain Operations Are Back
However, BNB Chain has since gone online and continued its operations.
About 2 million BNB tokens in all, or $570 million at today's rates, were stolen from the network by hackers, according to a blog post published on Friday by Binance's BNB Chain.
"There was an exploit affecting the native cross-chain bridge between BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Smart Chain (BEP20 or BSC), known as 'BSC Token Hub.' A total of 2 million BNB was withdrawn. The exploit was through a sophisticated forging of the low level proof into one common library." BNB Chain said.
The total amount removed, according to an earlier estimate from the corporation, was between $100 million and $110 million. The business claimed that it was able to freeze $7 million in assets with the aid of its security partners.
Binance first created BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Chain, in 2019. It has a native coin called BNB that may be exchanged or used in games and other applications, similar to other blockchains.
It is the most recent in a string of cyber hacks that have targeted cross-chain bridges, which are a favorite target of cybercriminals due to instances of poor engineering.
According to data from blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, hacks on cross-chain bridges have cost users almost $1.4 billion since 2022.
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
