Binance, the world’s largest exchange for crypto assets, reported on Friday that scammers stole around $100 million worth of digital currencies.
The total amount raised was US$580 million, but according to company boss Changpeng Zhao, around 80 percent was frozen immediately and the loss was less than US$100 million.
He tweeted that “some exploit” in the system had led to an increase in the manufacturing of the exchange’s native currency, BNB, but assured his seven million followers, “Your fortune is safe.”
It’s one of the largest heists in cryptocurrency history, and it came amid a year in which scammers exploiting the industry stole billions of dollars.
At the end of March, the blockchain game Axie Infinity was hacked for more than $500 million in the worst case.
Both scams exploited vulnerabilities in “cross-chain bridges” — the technique investors use to transfer assets across blockchains.
Blockchains are digital ledgers that record transaction information; Bitcoin is the most prominent example, but there are many others.
Binance, which boasted of conducting $32 trillion in transactions in 2017, claimed in a statement that “a total of 2 million BNB were removed” and estimated the theft at around $580 million.
In a subsequent appearance on MSNBC, Zhao confirmed that the majority of those coins had been frozen.
Most of the cash stayed in the exploiter’s address, while partners also helped secure funds on other chains, according to a Binance spokesman.
“Complete Pandemonium”
On Thursday night, prominent crypto players took to social media to discuss a $600 million heist, hours before the company made its initial announcement.
“Someone on BNB was recently hacked for around 2 million BNB,” explained a programmer using the Twitter handle foobar.
“The attacker spreads cash across liquidity pools and uses every available bridge to reach safer chains. Total disorder on the chain.” Throughout the year, specialists have warned of vulnerabilities on inter-chain bridges.
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