Ankr exploit: $aBNBc price falls 99.51% as aBNB token hit with million-dollar attack
BNB Chain-based decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr has been hit with a multi-million-dollar hack.
Ankr reported via Twitter that its aBNB token had been exploited on 2 December 2022 and Ankr was working with crypto exchanges to “immediately halt trading”.
It went on to say it was drafting a plan and was “committed to compensating affected users”.
Blockchain security company PeckShield actually broke the news an hour earlier than Ankr and revealed that the hacker was able to mint 20 trillion ankr reward bearing staked BNB (aBNBc) a reward-bearing token for BNB staked on the protocol.
PeckShield added that some of the stolen funds were transferred to the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.
However, on-chain analysis firm Lookonchain suggested the exploiter dumped all 20 trillion tokens on Pancake Swap.
Lookonchain stated that the hacker had then successfully exchanged the stolen funds for more than five million in usd coin (USDC).
As of 09:32am GMT on 2 December, aBNBc was trading at $1.51, down 99.51% compared with the previous day, according to CoinMarketCap.
USDC to USD
Binance’s response
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance later tweeted that a “possible” hack has taken place. Zhao added: “Initial analysis is developer private key was hacked, and the hacker updated the smart contract to a more malicious one.”
Binance’s BNB Chain also added; “We are aware of the attack on Ankr’s aBNBc, which lead to a substantial amount of new aBNBc being minted.
Ankr attempted to reassure users following the hack. It said: “All underlying assets on Ankr staking are safe and all infrastructure services are unaffected.”
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