Last Thursday, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has lost $100 million in the fourth blockchain bridge attack of its kind this year.
The figure could have been much higher, but the BNB Chain was quick to respond, suspending all fund transfers the minute the vulnerability was found.
The attackers targeted the BSC Token Hub cross-chain bridge, a channel responsible for the transfer of assets from one blockchain to another, forged messages to trick the logic of the contract, and minted new BNB tokens to take over.
According to their blog post on Friday, the hackers initially withdrew 2 million BNB — worth approximately $568 million — but the BNB Chain suspension effectively stopped $430 million from being transferred.
In a tweet, Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao confirmed the stolen amount to be between $100 million and $110 million
He continued: “The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly.”
The blog post adds that a new on-chain governance mechanism will be introduced on the BNB Chain to fend off any possible future attacks.
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