According to the firm, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, suffered a hacking loss of at least $100 million on Thursday.
BSC Token Hub, a bridge that enables the movement of funds between two Binance blockchains — BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain, was exposed, according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Hackers were able to create 2 million Binance digital tokens valued about $570 million using the BSC Token Hub flaw. Zhao said in an interview with CNBC that no users lost any money since attackers were just attempting to steal those additional tokens.
The company briefly shut down the susceptible network to address the flaw after the attackers tried to withdraw all $570 million , leaving the hackers with just about $118 million in stolen money, which they have already migrated to other networks.
According to Binance, the actual hack amount is between $100 million and $110 million because an estimated $7 million has been frozen. According to Zhao, cross-chain bridge attacks are frequent in the cryptocurrency sector. These open-source, blockchain-based smart contracts facilitate user movement between networks, but they have also emerged as a desirable tool for thieves to utilize for money laundering.
These attacks are a blow to the entire market for digital assets, which is already struggling with falling cryptocurrency prices and a sharp decline in market value from more than $3 trillion to less than $1 trillion.
Any attempt to compromise cryptocurrency systems reduces confidence in decentralized finance, which depends on algorithms and is unregulated.
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on bug bounty and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.