Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Web3 Infrastructure Platform Ankr Suffers $5 Million Exploitation, Binance Moves to Help

Published 12/02/2022, 08:20 AM
Updated 12/02/2022, 09:30 AM
Web3 Infrastructure Platform Ankr Suffers $5 Million Exploitation, Binance Moves to Help

Web3 Infrastructure Platform Ankr Suffers $5 Million Exploitation, Binance Moves to Help

  • Ankr, a decentralized finance protocol built on the BNB Chain, suffered a $5 million exploitation on its network.
  • As per Peckshield, the exploiter minted 20 trillion Ankr rewards bearing staked BNB (aBNBc).
  • The exploiter dumped 20 trillion aBNBc on PancakeSwap.
  • Ankr assured its community that all assets on its staking program were safe.
  • The firm warned users against trading on the network and asked liquidity providers to stop providing liquidity.
  • The Binance exchange has frozen about $3 million moved to its CEX following the hack.

On Thursday, a BNB Chain-based decentralized finance protocol, Ankr, suffered a $5 million exploitation on its network.

Notably, the popular blockchain security firm Peckshield was the first to break the exploitation news. According to Peckshield, the exploiter minted 20 trillion Ankr reward-bearing staked BNB (aBNBc).

.tweet-container,.twitter-tweet.twitter-tweet-rendered,blockquote.twitter-tweet{min-height:261px}.tweet-container{position:relative}blockquote.twitter-tweet{display:flex;max-width:550px;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px}blockquote.twitter-tweet p{font:20px -apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif}.tweet-container div:first-child{ position:absolute!Important }.tweet-container div:last-child{ position:relative!Important }

Shortly after, Lookonchain, an on-chain analysis firm, also announced the exploitation and said the exploiter dumped the minted 20 trillion aBNBc on PancakeSwap. Further, the analysis firm maintained that the exploiter had already exchanged the funds for more than $5 million worth of USD coins on Uniswap, Tornado Cash, and a host of others.

Later, Ankr itself confirmed the exploitation.

The DeFi protocol, however, assured its community of the safety of all underlying assets on its staking program. It also announced that the exploitation would not affect all its infrastructure services.

In a subsequent post, Ankr warned its users against trading on the network and asked liquidity providers among them to remove liquidity from DEXes. Furthermore, it promised to do a snapshot and provide users with the necessary information on the issue at the best possible time.

Binance Moves to Help Ankr, Freezes $3 Million

Following the hack, popular crypto exchange Binance pledged its support in recovering the stolen funds. According to its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, the exchange halted withdrawals a few hours ago. More so, Zhao said Binance has also frozen about $3 million moved to its CEX in connection to the hack.

The BNB chain, the distributed blockchain network housing Ankr and other dApps, also reacted to the exploitation.

"We are aware of the attack on @ankr's aBNBc that happened earlier today, leading to a substantial amount of new aBNBc being minted. The exploiter has been blacklisted. Our community is on top of it, coordinating a response. We will provide more updates as they become available." BNB Chain stated. Notably, the dApps on BNB chain have recently been prone to numerous exploitations. Recall that Bitkeep, a multi-chain crypto wallet, suffered a similar exploitation on the BNB chain in October. Reportedly, the hacker siphoned about $1 million through the exploitation after compromising the swap feature of the wallet.

In October, a cross-chain bridge, BSC token hub, endured exploitation on the BNB chain. The hacker stole one million BNB rewards and deposited them into a lending platform, identified as Venus protocol.

On the Flipside

  • The crypto influencer Ignas pointed out that Ankr received an audit by Peckshield warning about ‘trust issues with admin keys.’ Though the team ‘confirmed’ the warning, it appears they had not fixed it, as the hacking incident occurred yesterday.

Why You Should Care

The recent exploitation adds to the long list of hacks the DeFi space has endured throughout this year, which have cost $3 billion. In this regard, the DeFi space has yet to transform its security infrastructure.

You may also like:

BNB Chain Re-Activates From Shutdown Following ‘Potential Exploit’ of $100 Million

Binance Smart Chain DeFi Protocol Qubit Finance Exploited, Hacker Steals $80 Million

See original on DailyCoin

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.