The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange Binance suspended its blockchain network on Friday after the exchange lost over a hundred million worth of its BNB token to hackers. The company explained that a cross-chain bridge linking with its Blockchain Smart Chain (BSC) was targeted and this enabled hackers to steal BNB tokens from its network. Cross-chain bridges are tools that allow the transfer of tokens from one blockchain to another.
Binance confirmed that it had worked with transaction validators to halt the creation of new blocks on Blockchain Smart Chain (BSC). Transactions were suspended while a team of developers investigated the hack.
In a tweet, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that “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.”
A Binance spokesperson for Binance’s BNB team revealed that between $100 million and $110 million worth of BNB tokens were estimated to be stolen in the hack. The spokesperson also confirmed that $7 million worth of funds were frozen with the help of its security partners.
Following the development, the value of BNB declined more than 3 percent on Friday morning to $285.36, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Binance Smart Chain network was developed in 2019 by Binance. Like other blockchains, it has a native token, called BNB, that can be traded or used in games and other applications.
The Binance hack is the latest in a series of major hacks targeted at cross-chain bridges. According to data from Chainalysis, A total of around $1.4 billion has been lost to breaches on cross-chain bridges since the start of 2022.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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