Binance Close To Figuring Out Hacker Behind $570M Crypto Attack

• Binance was attacked by a hacker withdrawing $2 million in BNB tokens totaling to $570 million.
• The crypto platform is “narrowing down” the hacker’s identity after receiving tips from law enforcement.
• CEO Changpeng Zhao said the BNB chain prevented 80% to 90% of targeted funds stolen by the hacker.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, disclosed during an interview titled “Squawk Box Europe” that Binance is close to figuring out the hacker’s identity behind the $570 million theft of the BNB tokens.

Currently, Binance is “narrowing down” the culprits behind the orchestrated attack after receiving tips from law enforcement on who the person might be.

On October 7, the leading cryptocurrency exchange confirmed that $570 million worth of BNB tokens were stolen in a hack of the Binance Smart Chain network that acts as a bridge for asset transfers between networks.

After the attack, Zhao said that “software code is never bug-free,” stressing that even though cross-chain bridges are especially vulnerable to hacks, no users lost any money in the hack.

According to Chainanalysis, over $1 billion has been lost in cross-chain bridge breaches in 2022. These bridges have become a common target for hackers in the decentralized finance industry because of faults in their underlying code.

CEO Zhao expressed:

We’re still actually chasing, helping [authorities] to chase the bad players, working with law enforcement around the globe. Working with law enforcement is one of the ways that we can try to make the space safe.

He also shared that Binance contained the damage by pausing activity on the BNB Chain blockchain network by issuing an upgrade after coordinating with network validators responsible for signing off transaction approvals.

While concluding the interview, Zhao added that the blockchain was able to freeze about 80% to 90% of it, so the actual loss of it was much smaller. The vast majority of the funds remain under control.