BNB, the native token of Binance has declined following an attack on the Binance Token Hub, a cross-chain bridge that allows digital assets and data between blockchains.
During the attack, the hacker gained access to $570 million worth of cryptocurrencies from the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance. The hacking incident happened on Oct. 6 and was announced by Changpeng Zhao, the platform’s CEO in his tweet. To counter the attack, all transactions on the BNB Chain were suspended.
An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC. The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 6, 2022
In another tweet, “CZ” stated that the actual compromised amount was below $100 million.
The current impact estimate is around $100m USD equvilent, about a quarter of the last BNB burn.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 7, 2022
From the stolen amount, 7 million was already frozen as stated by Binance Chain in a tweet all thanks to the crypto community and its partners’ swift action.
Initial estimates for funds taken off BSC are between $70M – $80M.
However, thanks to the community and our internal and external security partners, an estimated $7M has already been frozen
1/2
— BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) October 6, 2022
In a blog posted on the BNB Chain website, the platform stated that the “exploit was through a sophisticated forging of the low level proof into one common library”. As further stated in the blog, to avoid similar attacks in the future, a new on-chain governance mechanism will be implemented on the platform. The chain is now already up and running and in a Reddit post, Binance Chain confirmed that the issue was already contained and all funds are safe.
Despite the reassuring words from the BNB Chain and Binance CEO “CZ”, the price of its token has taken the blow. As of writing, BNB‘s price declined from $290 to only $278 today shedding 4.4% of its previous price before the attack.
As prices of cryptocurrencies have tremendously declined due to recent inflation and geopolitical tension, cybersecurity attacks like hacking have added up to the injury, particularly for BNB.
