Report: Binance Nears Identification of Those Behind Oct. 6 Hack

With help from law enforcement and using its own resources, cryptocurrency exchange Binance is reportedly closing in on identifying the person or people behind an Oct. 6 hack of the company’s BNB Chain blockchain.

The crypto exchange has been working with law enforcement around the globe to identify those behind the $570 million hack, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Monday (Oct. 24), per a CNBC report.

“Actually, in this particular instant, law enforcement gave us some tips of who they think it might be,” Zhao said in the report. “So, we’re actually narrowing [it] down.”

Zhao also said that the BNB Chain was able to hold onto 80% or 90% of the funds targeted by the hack — limiting the loss to $100 million — by working with network validators to enact an upgrade and thereby pausing activity on the blockchain network, according to the report.

PYMNTS has reached out to Binance for comment.

As PYMNTS reported Oct. 7, the hack targeted the BNB Chain’s cross-chain payments bridge and was one in a series of thefts targeted at such bridges that had already seen $2 billion stolen.

Read more: What Are Cross-Chain Transactions and Why Are They Being Hacked?

Cross-chain bridges — which are ways to make transactions on cryptocurrency projects built on other blockchains — have proven to be very vulnerable.

In the case of the BNB Chain, the exchange was able to contact the controlling validator who runs the proof-of-stake blockchain and get them to halt it briefly, which is why the thieves were only able to make off with $100 million.

On Oct. 20, Binance announced it had named BJ Kang — a retired FBI agent who had a hand in unraveling some of Wall Street’s biggest insider trading schemes — as its head of investigations.

See more: Binance Names Ex-FBI Agent BJ Kang to Head Investigations Team

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