After a "potential exploit" drains an estimated $100M in cryptocurrency, Binance Smart Chain stops.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange's blockchain, Binance Smart Chain, put the brakes on operations on Thursday following what it called a "potential exploit" that on-chain data revealed would have targeted hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

BNB Chain tweeted from its Twitter account, "Due to irregular activity we're temporarily pausing BSC," later stating that the activity constituted a "potential exploit," which it described as contained.

Initial token movements showed that an attacker targeted up to two million BSC tokens late on Thursday, although actual losses may be substantially lower. BNB Chain stated in a tweet that $7 million had already been frozen despite estimating that $100 to $110 million in assets had been removed off the chain.

The fact that such a tiny amount of assets were actually taken highlights the benefit of BNB's decision to break the chain rather than risk having more assets escape. Blockchains are supposedly decentralized machines built to function independently of the whim of individual actors; you can not easily turn them off.

BSC acknowledged that it orchestrated a chain shutdown after identifying problems with the BSC Token Hub protocol, which serves as a clearinghouse for crypto transactions traveling between the interconnected components of the Binance-linked blockchain. It praised the quickness of the validators.

According to one tweet, "We are humbled by the speed and collaboration from the community to freeze funds,"

BSC's native BNB cryptocurrency, which was shaken by the threat of an assault, dropped to $280.40 from $293.10 following a quiet day of trade, according to CoinMarketCap, which Binance controls.

On-chain data reveals that an attacker who stole cryptocurrency using cross-chain swaps, bridges, and borrows made two large withdrawals of 1 million BSC tokens from the BSC token hub this afternoon. However, BNB's Twitter stated that it will "all funds are safe" and assured users that "help freeze any transfers."

The major stablecoin supplier, Tether, has banned the offending address, according to Twitter sleuths, indicating that the company believes the movement of tokens was caused by an assault rather than anything more innocuous.

By fLEXI tEAM