In a BNB Chain blog post in early October, the authors announced that about two million BNB crypto tokens were stolen. The value? It was over a whopping $560 million. At the time, the BNB Chain had $5.45 billion in DeFi (decentralized finance) assets. The platform is a part of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
The vulnerability was in the cross-chain bridge. This allows for the movement of crypto from one blockchain to another. Essentially, the hacker was able to manipulate the blockchain, which allowed for minting huge numbers of tokens.
But BNB Chain was swift in its response and suspended transactions. The result was that the loss was reduced to about $110 million.
Growing Web3 Hacks
The BNB Chain hack is nothing new. Massive hacks are becoming a more common part of the Web3 ecosystem. Here’s a look at some recent examples:
The vulnerability was in the cross-chain bridge. This allows for the movement of crypto from one blockchain to another. Essentially, the hacker was able to manipulate the blockchain, which allowed for minting huge numbers of tokens.
But BNB Chain was swift in its response and suspended transactions. The result was that the loss was reduced to about $110 million.
Growing Web3 Hacks
The BNB Chain hack is nothing new. Massive hacks are becoming a more common part of the Web3 ecosystem. Here’s a look at some recent examples:
- Axie Infinity: Sky Mavis, which is based in Singapore, is the developer of this play-to-earn online game. In March, hackers were able to steal over $500 million in crypto assets. The hackers were able to obtain private keys, which allowed for accessing validator nodes. Sky Mavis has taken steps to improve its security. The company also raised venture capital to help reimburse customers.
- The Horizon Bridge: This platform manages transactions across different blockchains, like Ethereum, Bitcoin and the Binance Chain. In late June, Horizon disclosed a hack of the system. The hackers stole about $100 million crypto.
- Nomad: This is also for transactions across various blockchains like USD Coin, Ethereum, and Dai. The hackers were able to make off with $190 million in crypto by swapping account numbers.
