Crypto exchange Binance paused withdrawals after possible Ankr hack: CEO

“Possible hacks on Ankr and Hay. Initial analysis is developer private key was hacked, and the hacker updated the smart contract to a more malicious one. Binance paused withdrawals a few hrs ago. Also froze about $3m that hackers move to our CEX,” he tweeted.

The aBNBc token had derived its value in part from a link to Binance Coin and was intended to give holders of the latter ways of earning returns. About $123 million of assets are deposited on the Ankr protocol, according to its website. Ankr said it was working with exchanges to stop trading of the affected coin.

DeFi protocol Ankr, which called itself the first ‘node-as-a-service’ platform, has suffered a multi-million dollar exploit due to a bug in its code that allowed for unlimited minting of its token, reported CoinDesk.

Blockchain security specialist PeckShield Inc. said on Twitter the attacker may have exploited a software bug to mint vast amounts of the token before rushing to convert them into other coins to make away with the digital swag.

More than $3 billion has been hacked from the crypto sector so far in 2022, which is on course to be a record year for exploits involving digital assets, according to blockchain specialist Chainalysis.

The attacks add to woes from a yearlong rout in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies alongside high-profile blowups at crypto firms such as the FTX exchange.

(With inputs from agencies)