BNB Smart Chain Suffers Exploit with Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Stolen

Binance Coin (BNB) suffered a sharp decline on Friday after reports of a cross-chain bridge attack had occurred on October 6 on the BNB Smart Chain, which saw about 2,000,000 BNB ($562 million using the current exchange rate) get stolen. Reports also showed that “Tether blacklisted the account,” which pushed Binance to pause the entire chain.

.@BNBchain is currently under maintenance.

We will suspend all deposits and withdrawals via BNB chain temporarily until there are further updates.

We apologise for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience!

— Binance (@binance) October 6, 2022

Announcing the incident, the official BNB SMart Chain Twitter handle noted some hours back: “Due to irregular activity, we’re temporarily pausing BSC. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates here. Thank you for your patience and understanding.” The Twitter page continued:

“To confirm, we have suspended BSC after having determined a potential exploit. All systems are now contained, and we are immediately investigating the potential vulnerability. We know the Community will assist and help freeze any transfers. All funds are safe. We want to thank all node service providers for their quick and attentive response.”

As expected, numerous speculations and expressions of concern have trailed the attack. Commenting on the issue, Binance CEO Changpeng CZ Zhao noted: “An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB.” The Binance boss further noted: “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.”

BNB Smart Chain Team Says Only $110 Million Stolen

The BNB Smart Chain team took to Reddit to report that the estimated theft from the exploit was around $100 to $110 million. The team noted: “Initial estimates for funds taken off BSC are between $100M – $110M,” the Reddit post explains. “However, thanks to the community and our internal and external security partners, an estimated $7M has already been frozen.”

That said, Binance recently announced that the issue has been resolved:

📢BNB Smart Chain (BSC) is running ok from 20+ mins ago.

The validators are confirming their status and the community infrastructure are upgrading as well.

— BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) October 7, 2022