Binance stops BSC due to hack, BNB drops 5% in two hours

Cross-chain bridges remain the most vulnerable point in the cryptocurrency space, leading toregular hacks and theft of coins. This time, the BSC Token Hub bridge of the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchain was hit.

BSC was launched by Binance in September 2020for efficient work with smart contracts. Since there are various variations of blockchains with their own specifics, rules, and management standards, inter-chain bridges are used to move assets between them. The diversity of protocols results in a complex architecture of bridges, which creates potential holes for hackers to infiltrate.

BSC Token Hub was no exception -the attacker was able to mint 2 million BNB (the internal coin of the Binance ecosystem), which is equivalent to $586 million. In an attempt to freeze the leakage of funds, the crypto exchange stopped the BSC chain (including transactions with deposits), and BNB lost 5% of its value in two hours.

Image Source: Cryptocurrency ExchangeStormGain

Thanks to the blocking, the hacker could only withdrawone-fifth of BNB minted. To do this, he also took advantage of cross-bridges and DeFi platforms. While investigating the leak, users estimated the amount stolen at around $100 million. Later, the Bnb Smart Chain team confirmed the loss in a Reddit post.

Image Source: twitter.com/jeffthedunker

At the time of writing, BSC is stilldisconnected (including from the BNB senior chain), and the team promises to restart in an hour at best. Binance also assures clients that all funds remain safe and sound.

Image source: twitter.com/BNBCHAIN

In addition to the lack of security, the bridge hack demonstrated how centralized Binance chains are and how they can be brought to a halt in an instant.

Due to the complexity of the architecture, bridges are subject toregular attacks by hackers. So, on August 01, due to the Nomad hack, attackers got about $200 million, and in June, an attack on the Horizon bridge of the Harmony network was successfully carried out with a loss of $100 million.

 

Analytical group StormGain

(platform for trading, exchanging and storing cryptocurrency)