Binance Smart Chain halts after $100 million exploit, CZ says

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao later confirmed the concern on Twitter, indicating, “An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in added BNB.” The BSC Token Hub impacted is the cross-chain bridge involving the BNB Beacon Chain and the BNB Chain, he included.

“The challenge is contained now,” CZ wrote. “Your resources are risk-free.”

An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have questioned all validators to temporarily suspend BSC. The challenge is contained now. Your funds are risk-free. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide even further updates appropriately.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 6, 2022

“This is an isolated issue on BSC,” a Binance consultant told Fortune. The BSC Hub and BNB Chain groups did not quickly reply to requests for comment.

CZ also pointed to a Reddit post with much more facts of the exploit, which observed an first estimate of cash stolen ranging from $100 million to $110 million, adding that an estimated $7 million had been frozen.

The present-day influence estimate is all over $100m USD equvilent, about a quarter of the past BNB burn up.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 7, 2022

Cross-chain bridge hacks are incredibly prevalent. Case in stage: About $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen in cross-chain bridge hacks just this year.

Quite a few on crypto Twitter also pointed this out: “Bridges are the weak point.”

CZ mentioned on Twitter that there isn’t a rush to resume. “Let’s give the devs time to totally fully grasp the root trigger, put into practice the fixes, take a look at them comprehensively, and then resume,” he wrote. “Let’s not rush it now.”