Crypto exchange Binance put its blockchain network on a temporary hold late last week after hackers sole around $570 million in BNB tokens (equivalent to two billion BNB tokens).
This past Thursday, Binance revealed that a cross-chain bridge connected with its BNB Chain was focused on, which essentially made it much easier for hackers to gain access to BNB tokens.
It has been approximated that around $87 million of total funds were taken from the BNB token system completely, but the rest of the money could not be taken since the BNB Chain took action when it came to putting a stop to the blockchain, thus preventing any further funds from being accessed.
"An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB," Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted. "We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC [Binance Smart Chain]."
This past Friday, Binance wrote in a blog post that it would strive to shut down any other areas of susceptible attack. The crypto exchange also apologized for potentially placing the community's private information at risk.
"First, we want to apologize to the community for the exploit that occurred. We own this," Binance wrote in a blog post. "Thanks to the assistance of all the security experts, projects, and validators, the vast majority of the funds remain under control."
About a year ago, Binance made a statement that it was about time for regulators to set some type of law or rule into motion in terms of user safety and protection in the crypto exchange world. All types of crypto exchanges tend to get hit with attacks, but Binance just so happens to be the latest crypto exchange company to receive these types of attacks. Other companies have also been hit with attacks, like Nomad, which lost around $200 million, and Harmony, which lost around $100 million.
"Looking at the broader picture, we have seen a series of attacks on targeting vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridges,"the BNB chain account wrote in a blog post. "We will openly share the details of the postmortem and all lessons on how to implement more advanced security measures to shore-up these vulnerabilities."