A recent BNB bridge hack has targeted Binance, enabling cybercriminals to carry out transactions on the network without requiring Binance's permission. As seen in past events, the hack allows attackers to transfer numerous cryptocurrencies from one blockchain network to another. This unauthorized access poses a significant risk to BNB tokens, as scammers can easily withdraw and transfer them to anonymous wallets.
More details showed that the latest BNB bridge hack has some connection with Venus. Venus is a lending protocol built into the Binance Smart Chain network. The attackers’ health rate was 1.18 on the Venus protocol, which would have allowed the hacker to carry out any unauthorized transactions. The health rate on the Venus platform is the metric used in measuring the financial health and accessibility of a user on their platform. The financial health position can either be stable or poor. According to Venus's terms, having a 1.18 health rate meant that the hacker had met all the necessary requirements needed to carry out any transaction.
According to provisions made by Venus, if the price of BNB drops to $219.76, the attacker’s collateral position of 924,821.42 BNB, valued at $236 million, can be liquidated. On the other hand, it is only the Binance Smart Chain network that has the power to liquidate the hacker's position. Nevertheless, there's no guarantee that the liquidation might have occurred even if the hacker activated it.
It's worth noting that the recent hacking attempt on the Binance Smart Chain bridge is not the first of its kind. In fact, a similar attack occurred in October of last year, resulting in millions of dollars in transactions. Reports indicate that the hackers responsible for breaching the bridge managed to obtain approximately 2 million BNB tokens. Subsequently, they staked nearly 1 million of these tokens on Venus and were able to secure a loan worth roughly $150 million in stablecoin.
Binance Legal Troubles
The latest bridge attack isn't much of a headline as the Binance lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission currently has the attention of the crypto community. The crypto industry went into a frenzy in the early hours of Monday when the US SEC announced they would be using the biggest exchange for breaking many of their regulatory laws.
The count of charges against Binance was about 13. The Securities and Exchange Commission wasn't too generous with their words as they went straight to the point in their accusations against Binance. They said Binance was an illegal platform that made billions of dollars in profits while putting the funds of US citizens at risk.
"This case arises from Defendants’ blatant disregard of the federal securities laws and the investor and market protections these laws provide. In so doing, Defendants have enriched themselves by billions of U.S. dollars while placing investors’ assets at significant risk," SEC said in the court filing.
The crypto exchange will also make several changes in its mode of operation in the US. The most important is that they will be removing many pairs from trading the exchange. Also, their OTC Trading Portal will be temporarily paused pending the lawsuit's outcome.