Hackers stole $570 million in tokens from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange on Friday. The theft is another blow to the trust of crypto owners. Philip Stafford and Scott Chipolina report in the Financial Times:
Hackers have stolen around $570mn in tokens from Binance, in a rare blow to the world’s biggest crypto exchange and another dent to the troubled digital assets industry struggling to regain trust after a collapse in prices.
Binance initially estimated on Friday that tokens worth about $100mn to $110mn had been taken, pausing the operation of the affected blockchain for approximately eight hours.
However, the exchange later disclosed that the hacker had taken around two million of the cryptocurrency BNB, Binance’s own digital token, with a value of around $284 each. The hack targeted BSC Token Hub, a bridge between two Binance systems.
It comes at a time when digital assets are trying to recover from a credit crisis that wiped nearly two-thirds off the value of its most high-profile tokens such as bitcoin. Industry data have also indicated that theft from projects is soaring this year.
Cyber criminals had taken nearly $2bn this year to the end of July, nearly double the total in the first seven months of last year, according to data from Chainalysis. High-profile thefts included $600mn from the blockchain behind popular crypto-gaming platform Axie Infinity. Many hacks have been traced to state-sponsored actors in North Korea.
Binance’s position as the world’s largest crypto exchange means Friday’s exploit represents a significant blow to the digital assets industry.
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