Security News > 2022 > October > Binance robbed of $600 million in crypto-tokens

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance temporarily halted its blockchain network on Thursday in response to a cyberattack that led to the theft of two million BNB tokens, notionally exchangeable for $566 million in fiat currency.

The shutdown, requiring the cooperation of 26 validators to close the decentralized system, occurred around 2200 UTC on October 6, as a result of the exploitation of the BSC Token Hub bridge, which connects the BNB Beacon Chain and the BNB Smart Chain so tokens from different blockchains can be exchanged.

"There was an exploit affecting the native cross-chain bridge between BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain, known as 'BSC Token Hub,'" said Din Havolli, content lead for BNB Chain, in a blog post.

"A total of two million BNB was withdrawn. The exploit was through a sophisticated forging of the low level proof into one common library."

Security firm SlowMist says that the crypto-robbers have moved about $110 million off the BNB chain to other blockchains.

The suspension of the network kept about $430 million worth of BNB tokens from being transferred and those tokens appear to remain trapped in the thieves' digital wallet.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/10/07/binance_hack_566m/