Cryptocurrency: a colossal sum stolen from Binance after a hack

The boss of Binance claimed Friday, October 7 that a hack had affected the cryptocurrency platform, estimating that the equivalent of 100 million dollars were stolen. “The problem is now under control,” Changpeng Zhao tried to reassure his 7 million subscribers. on Twitter. Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by volume. “Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and are providing further updates accordingly,” ‘CZ’ continued.

In a publication on the Reddit site, Binance specifies that of the entire amount stolen, approximately $7 million had already been frozen. The hackers targeted the BSC Token Hub cross-chain bridge. A bridge is a service allowing a user to transfer cryptographic tokens from one blockchain to another. The Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchain to which the bridge targeted by the hackers is connected was suspended after the hack before being restored a few hours later.

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Computer attacks against inter-chain bridges have multiplied in recent months. In August, hackers stole the equivalent of $190 million by exploiting a flaw in the Nomad Bridge. According to Chainanalysis, $2 billion was stolen via 13 cross-chain bridge hacks between January and August. These attacks represent 69% of cryptocurrency thefts in 2022, indicates the specialist in data analysis on the blockchain.

Elliptic, another cryptocurrency analytics firm, noted in its quarterly hack report released this week that bridges “tend to accumulate large amounts of stranded assets on many blockchains, many of which may not have be no culture of security or advanced auditing due to their relative opacity.” This has made bridges “an attractive target for cybercriminals,” Elliptic adds.

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