Hackers Steal $570 Million Worth of Binance’s BNB Tokens

In a blog post published earlier today, cryptocurrency exchange Binance revealed that a group of hackers has stolen 2 million BNB tokens worth nearly $570 million at current prices from BNB Chain (via CNBC).

The company said that the hackers targeted a cross-chain bridge linking with its BNB Chain to move BNB tokens off the network.

For those who aren’t familiar, cross-chain bridges are tools that allow the transfer of tokens from one blockchain to another. Binance says it is working with network validators to pause the creation of new blocks on BSC.

Binance temporarily suspended its blockchain network while a team of developers investigated the breach.

“An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC,” Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet.

“The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly,” he added.

“As with many bridge designs, there is one central point that holds most of the funds that are moving through the bridge,” Adrian Hetman, tech lead of the triaging team at Immunefi, told CNBC.

“Ultimately, the Bridge was tricked into giving funds from that contract.”

The value of BNB sank more than 3% Friday morning to $285.36 a coin, according to CoinMarketCap data.

BNB Chain has since resumed operations.