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BNB hacker ‘transferred $57m to FTM, $53m to ETH, $400k to MATIC’

By Daniela Ešnerová

16:07, 7 October 2022

BNB logo
Binance is estimating the worth of stolen cryptocurrencies to be between $100m and $110m. – Photo: ShutterStock

Cryptocurrencies worth more than $100m have been stolen in a bridge exploit at BNB Smart Chain (BNB).

Hackers managed to transfer an estimated $57m to FTM, $53m to ETH and $400,000 to MATIC, before Binance halted its chain to stop the attack.

The team behind Binance Smart Chain, with assistance from the cryptocurrency community, suppressed the attack in a matter of hours. 

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BNB Smart Chain (BNB) to US Dollar

Managing exploit

Binance, the company behind the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange and the Binance blockchain, also known as BNB Chain, tweeted that it was pausing BSC because of “irregular activity” on Thursday.

Rumours started spreading on Twitter, and people took to the social media site to share their on-chain analytics and information on the ongoing attack.

BTC/USD

98,216.10 Price
+4.580% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 50.00

PEPE/USD

0.00 Price
+2.950% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.00000009

ETH/USD

3,484.22 Price
+1.950% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 1.75

DOGE/USD

0.33 Price
+3.600% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.0016653

Some two hours later, the Binance official account on Reddit confirmed the attack: “Initial estimates for funds taken off BSC are between $100m [and] $110m. However, thanks to the community and our internal and external security partners, an estimated $7m has already been frozen,” the company wrote in a post on Reddit.

ETH to US Dollar

The funds were stolen using a cross-chain bridge. Cross-chain bridges, which are used to transfer cryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another, were named a top security concern in the cryptocurrency space by the analytics company Chainalysis earlier this year.

In a report published this August, Chainalysis estimated that $2bn in cryptocurrency has been stolen across 13 separate cross-chain bridge hacks, the majority of which was stolen this year. The research firm said that this made for 69% of total funds stolen in 2022 so far. 

Markets in this article

BNB/USD
Binance Coin / USD
703.37 USD
12.54 +1.820%
ETH/USD
Ethereum / USD
3484.22 USD
66.81 +1.950%
FTM/USD
FTM/USD
1.00604 USD
-0.02954 -2.870%
MATIC/USD
POL/USD
0.52020 USD
0.0227 +4.570%

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The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
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