Crypto Scammers Pulled $100 Million Out of Binance

The company’s chief Changpeng Zhao wrote on Twitter that “an exploit” in the system resulted in excess production of the exchange’s dedicated currency, adding: “Current impact estimates are around $100 million.”

“This issue is now under control. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly,” he wrote.

This is one of India’s biggest thefts cryptocurrency history, although it is still dwarfed by the massive heist of over $500 million from the Axi Infinity blockchain game earlier this year.

Scammers are increasingly exploiting vulnerabilities in “cross-chain bridges” – a means used by investors to move assets from one blockchain to another.

Blockchains are digital ledgers that store transaction details – the largest being bitcoin but there are thousands of others.

Changpeng Zhao wrote that the theft involved “a cross-chain bridge, an exploit on the BSC token hub”, assuring customers that it has been fixed.

The exchange said on Reddit that the amount taken was between $100 and $110 million, adding that $7 million had already been recovered.

The Axi Infinity hack and another theft worth nearly $200 million at crypto firm Nomad last month also involved exploiting bridges.

Crypto analysis firm Chainalysis said in August that Bridge exploits had contributed about $2 billion in thefts earlier this year.

Another analysis firm, Elliptic, said in its crime report this week that bridges “store large amounts of locked assets on multiple blockchains, many of which may not have advanced security or auditing cultures due to their relative obscurity”.

“This has made bridges an attractive target for cybercriminals in the past,” it said.

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.