Binance hack: BNB has been seemingly stolen in a suspected attack. The exploit, rumored to be worth around $600m, has forced the BNB blockchain (BSC) to tweet a warning about “irregular activity.”
Update Oct. 7, 2022, 13:30 UTC: Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has finally spoken out about the Binance hack, or BNB cross-bridge exploit, in a recent interview with CNBC below:
Update Oct. 6, 2022, 7:55 UTC: the BSC hacked has been dealt with by the Binance team, and the blockchain has resumed deposits and withdrawals.
Update Oct. 6, 2022, 2:48 UTC: The exploit was found to be related to a cross-chain bridge on BSC Token Hub. A post-mortem has revealed that 2 million BNB worth approximately $566 million has been taken. Out of that, around $7 million worth has already been frozen, but the attacker is starting to bridge the funds away from BSC onto the Ethereum, Fantom, and Arbitrum blockchains.
The tweet on the microblogging site said, “Due to irregular activity, we’re temporarily pausing BSC. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates here. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Binance Hack and Centralization Concerns
The suspected BNB hack again raised the subject of centralized finance versus decentralized finance and whether this can also affect Ethereum.
Nick H., CEO at Luxor Mining, said, “They can stop BSC that’s fine. But the coins were already swapped to ETH. Now we’ll find out how decentralized Ethereum really is after the merge. This could be quite the rubicon moment for post-merge ETH2.0.”
BNB Price in Free Fall
BNB price has fallen 3.7% as the news of the Binance hack broke today.
The exact type of theft is currently uncertain. However, the rumor mill is working overtime on Twitter. Many enthusiasts are crediting the hack to an “inside job” and say that the BNB was stolen from a smart contract.
Amateur Twitter detectives have also said that stablecoin Tether has blacklisted the suspected address. This could suggest Binance suspects an attack over something more harmless.
Binance has tried to quell fears by saying, “To confirm, we have suspended BSC after having determined a potential exploit. All systems are now contained, and we are immediately investigating the potential vulnerability. We know the Community will assist and help freeze any transfers. All funds are safe.”
BNB Chain (Binance Smart Chain BSC) Takes the Spotlight
On-chain data highlights two withdrawals of 1 million BSC tokens. It seems that the attacker grabbed the crypto assets via cross-chains swaps, bridges, and borrows.
The decentralization vs centralization argument rages on.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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