BNB Chain suffers $566M hack while Bitcoin swings

Hacks aren’t uncommon in the cryptocurrency world, but some of them are more serious than others. That’s likely the case now because BNB Chain just suffered a hack that siphoned two million BNB tokens (around $566 million). At the same time, Bitcoin (BTC) is swinging after an announcement by the U.S.

The attack against the Binance chain took place on Thursday. An unknown cybercriminal tricked the BSC Token Hub to send them the tokens, taking advantage of a vulnerability on the platform. The BSC Token Hub is a bridge between BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Chain (BEP20 or BSC), or, in other words, it’s the software making possible the connection and interoperability between those networks.

Sadly, to date, bridges aren’t the safest digital products. According to Chainalysis, “attacks on bridges account for 69% of total funds stolen in 2022 so far [August]”. Hackers have been able to steal over $2 billion in cryptocurrencies by discovering and passing through exploits on crypto bridges. The current situation highlights this security risk even more.

At least, from the total stolen on BNB Chain, the hacker was able to access only $110 million. Their on-chain transactions tell us that it wasn’t easy to erase their footprints, and most of the loot was frozen by some exchanges and BNB Chain itself. They halted the network temporarily, and a anunțat the recovery of most stolen funds “by contacting community validators one by one”.

BNB Chain is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, which means that they have validators instead of mineri. From 44 validators in total, only 26 are active. Given these numbers and the fact that the chain was halted so easily, the community is now concerned about a centralization issue on BNB Chain.

Beyond the BNB hack, Bitcoin doubts

In the wake of this event, BNB, the native token of BNB Chain, decreased by over 3% in the last 24 hours. However, we can say that the hit wasn’t particularly harsh, and the coin seems to be performing well right now [CMC]. On the other hand, after a small bullish impulse, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by 3% in the last day as well, and it’s threatening to turn more bearish.

This Friday, the U.S. Labor Department a anunțat that national employers added 263,000 new jobs in September, compared with the Dow Jones estimate of 275,000 —and the vibrant 315,000 in August. This implies a further deterioration of the economy, so, Federal Reserve could increase interest rates more, affecting the markets. Of course, including Bitcoin.

Currently, the Indicele Crypto Fear & Greed shows us “Extreme Fear” by investors. The sentiment and bad news could cause an extension of the bearish market, even when October has been historically bullish for stocks and cryptos. Despite the grim signs, we can say that the whole crypto market cap has increased by almost 1% in the last seven days [CMC]. That’s not bad after a big hack.   

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