Binance-related blockchain hits $570 million

LONDON (Reuters) – A blockchain linked to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was hit by a $570 million hack, a spokesperson for Binance said on Friday, the latest in a series of hacks to hit the crypto sector this year. .

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet that the tokens were stolen from a blockchain “bridge” used on the BNB chain, known until February as Binance Smart Chain.

Blockchain bridges are tools used to transfer cryptocurrencies between different applications. They are increasingly targeted by criminals, researcher Chainalysis said in August, with nearly $2 billion stolen in 13 different hacks, most of them this year.

Zhao said in his tweet that the hackers stole about $100 million worth of cryptocurrency. BNB Chain later said In a blog post That a total of 2 million BNB cryptocurrency — worth about $570 million — had been withdrawn by the hacker.

The majority of BNB remained in the hackers’ digital wallet address, while around $100 million “has not been recovered,” a Binance spokesperson said in an email.

Backed by BNB Chain, BNB, formerly known as Binance Coin, is the world’s fifth largest token with a market capitalization of over $45 billion, according to data site CoinGecko.

Elliptic, a London-based cryptocurrency researcher, told Reuters that the hacker minted 2 million new BNB before transferring most of the funds to other cryptocurrencies including Tether and USD Coin.

BNB Chain said in a tweet on Twitter that it suspended the blockchain for several hours before resuming at around 0630 GMT.

BNB Chain said in its blog post that BNB Chain was “able to prevent the spread of the incident” by contacting blockchain “verifiers” – the entities or individuals who verify blockchain transactions. Without going into details, she added, there are 44 validators across several different time zones.

Described by Binance as a “community-driven, open source, and decentralized ecosystem,” the BNB chain said it will introduce a new “governance mechanism” to counter future hacks, as well as increase the number of validators.

In March, hackers stole about $615 million from a blockchain bridge called Ronin Bridge, in one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record, which the United States linked to North Korean hackers.

(Elizabeth Howcroft reports). Editing by Tom Wilson, Anna Nicholas Da Costa and Louise Heavens

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