In October 2022, BNB suffered one of the largest hacking attacks in cryptocurrency history. On the date, the stolen cryptocurrencies were valued at BRL 3.7 billion and Binance had to suspend withdrawals and deposits from the network.
Soon after, the hacker sent the equivalent of more than $100 million to the Venus protocol, using cryptocurrencies to borrow Tether (USDT). At that time, Binance Coin (BNB) was around $290.
However, with the fall of cryptocurrencies this Thursday (17), the hacker liquidated part of his position as BNB fell to $212.
Hacker losses are $312 million
The BNB hacker was clearly not the only one to lose money in Thursday’s crash. Traders were liquidated for BRL 5.2 billion as cryptocurrencies lost BRL 200 billion in market value.
Anyway, even though a single trader lost R$273 million while betting on Ethereum’s rise, the hacker was arguably the biggest loser of the day.
According to information from PeckShield, shared by BNN Bloomberg, the hacker lost US$63 million (R$312 million). The coins were used as collateral for the loan from Tether (USDT) – possibly an attempt to launder the money or otherwise have their coins frozen by BNB developers.
In an analysis conducted by live coins, we found three on-chain transactions from hackers. The amount is totaled 6,743,100 Venus BNB (vBNB).
According to the Venus Protocol website, 44.040212 vBNB is equal to 1 BNB. Therefore, the 6,743,100 to vBNB would be equal to 153.112 BNBcurrently evaluated on BRL 165 million. Thus, the 312 million BRL quoted by PeckShield can be linked to the value of BNB on the date of the hack, about a year ago.
On social media, the decentralized exchange team commented on the matter, noting that the liquidation had no effect on the BNB price.
“Following today’s market movement, the BNB Bridge hacker’s account was restored as promised by @BNBCHAIN using whitelist liquidation without any resulting shortfall or further impact to BNB.”
After today’s market movement, the BNB Bridge operating account was made healthy as promised by @BNBCHAIN using whitelist liquidation without any shortfall or further impact on $bnb https://t.co/TGZ7nbiDPN
— Venus Protocol (@VenusProtocol) August 18, 2023
Since November last year, the intention was that the BNB would become a Chain Team “the sole liquidator of this position, to safely control the huge volume of BNB”.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
