An estimated $100 million in Binance Coin (also known as BNB token) tokens were stolen during a targeted hack on the BSC Token Hub on Friday.
Hackers broke into the cross-chain bridge linking Binance with Binance Smart Chain (BSC) to shift the funds. These bridges are designed to facilitate the movement of tokens from one blockchain to another.
The cryptocurrency exchange temporarily froze its blockchain network after the major hack.
CEO Changpeng Zhao confirmed the hack on his Twitter, stating: “An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC. The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly.”
Agreed. I was impressed by the quick actions the @BNBChain team took. I am not that involved in the technical side of BNB Chain. Far less than Vitalik with ETH. The principles of issue handling are simple & important: fast, transparent & responsible. 👏 https://t.co/eOJrAzWG97
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 7, 2022
He added a link to a Reddit post detailing the temporary suspension of BNB Smart Chain and further detailing actions taken after the incident.
Continuing on the thread, Zhao underscored the company’s focus on solving the issue rather than resuming operations: “Let’s give the devs time to fully understand the root cause, implement the fixes, test them thoroughly, and then resume. Let’s not rush it now.”
A Binance spokesperson told Fortune 500 that this was an isolated incident on BSC.
In August, Binance announced a crypto payment card in partnership with Mastercard that could enable cardholders to convert BNB to fiat for transactions at Mastercard terminals.