PARIS — Scammers have stolen around $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from Binance, the world’s largest crypto asset exchange, the firm announced on Friday.
A total of $580 million was stolen, but company boss Changpeng Zhao said around 80 percent was frozen immediately and damage was limited to less than $100 million.
He tweeted that “an exploit” in the system resulted in additional production of the exchange’s dedicated currency, BNB, but insisted the issue had been “contained”, telling his seven million followers: “Your funds are safe.” “
It is among the biggest thefts in cryptocurrency history and comes in a year that scammers exploiting the sector have made off with billions of dollars.
In the most damaging incident, blockchain game Axie Infinity was hacked for more than $500 million in late March.
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Both scams exploited weaknesses in “cross-chain bridges” — the means used by investors to move assets from one blockchain to another.
Blockchains are digital ledgers that store details of transactions. Many cryptocurrencies rely on blockchain technology, including bitcoin.
A visual representation of Bitcoin at the Bitcoin Change store in Tel Aviv, February 6, 2018. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Binance, which boasted of processing $32 trillion in transactions last year, said in a statement that “a total of 2 million BNB were withdrawn,” valuing the heist at around $580 million.
Zhao later clarified in an interview with MSNBC that most of these coins had been frozen.
A Binance spokesperson told AFP that quick response and coordination meant that “the majority of funds remained at the exploiter’s address, while partners helped secure funds on other chains as well.”
“Total Chaos”
Prominent crypto figures had been speaking of a $600 million theft on social media late Thursday, hours before the firm made its first statement.
“Someone on BNB just got hacked [roughly] 2 million BNB,” wrote one developer using the name foobar on Twitter.
“The attacker spits funds out through liquidity pools, using every possible bridge to get to safer chains. Complete chaos in the chain.”
Experts have warned of security vulnerabilities on cross-chain bridges all year long.
Chainalysis, a crypto analytics firm, said in August that bridge exploits were responsible for about $2 billion in thefts so far this year.
Elliptic, another analytics company, said on Twitter it helps track Binance’s funds.
In a report this week, Elliptic said bridges “tend to accumulate large amounts of locked assets on numerous blockchains, many of which may not have an advanced security or audit culture due to their relative obscurity.”
“This has historically made Bridges an attractive target for cybercriminals,” she added.
A vivid photo of a person typing on a keyboard as part of a cyber attack. (Techa Tungateja; iStock by Getty Images)
Governments are concerned that cryptocurrencies are being used to fund terrorism, evade sanctions and prop up repressive regimes.
Experts believe groups linked to North Korea are behind some of the most high-profile raids, including the Axie Infinity breach.
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