Binance Smart Chain paused on Thursday evening after detecting a “potential exploit.”
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao later confirmed the issue on Twitter, saying, “An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB.” The BSC Token Hub impacted is the cross-chain bridge between the BNB Beacon Chain and the BNB Chain, he added.
“The issue is contained now,” CZ wrote. “Your funds are safe.”
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.
— CZ ? Binance (@cz_binance) October 6, 2022
“This is an isolated issue on BSC,” a Binance representative told Fortune.
CZ also pointed to a Reddit post with more details of the exploit, which noted an initial estimate of funds stolen ranging from $100 million to $110 million, adding that an estimated $7 million had been frozen.
The current impact estimate is around $100m USD equvilent, about a quarter of the last BNB burn.
— CZ ? Binance (@cz_binance) October 7, 2022
In response to a request for comment, the BSC Hub and BNB Chain teams referred Fortune to the Reddit post cited by CZ.
Cross-chain bridge hacks are extremely common. Case in point: About $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen in cross-chain bridge hacks just this year.
Many on crypto Twitter also pointed this out: “Bridges are the weakness.”
CZ said on Twitter that there isn’t a rush to resume. “Let’s give the devs time to fully understand the root cause, implement the fixes, test them thoroughly, and then resume,” he wrote. “Let’s not rush it now.”
