Hackers Outsmart Binance Smart Chain - What Happened

Knock knock, Friday's here.  And together with it - the latest BitDegree Insider Newsletter.

Here's what happened since yesterday:

• ⚡BNB Smart Chain Hack
• ⚡Celsius Problems
• ⚡SEC Chair's 'PR Stunt'
• ⚡Selected Meme of The Day

BNB Smart Chain Outsmarted

World's biggest crypto exchange, Binance, is dealing with this week's world's biggest crypto hack. What happened?

Binance Smart Chain (Binance's own blockchain), was paused after a $560M bridge hack. $110M of which is reported to have been bridged to other blockchain networks.

What's a bridge attack?

In crypto, bridges are the connections between different blockchains. It's thanks to bridges that users can exchange their assets between them. 

As it was reported, hackers tricked the system, and managed to hack 2 million Binance Coin tokens (BNB) to partake in two transactions. At the time of the hack this amount was equivalent to $568 million. The BNB coin underwent a 3% drop in its value since the event took place.

The hacker didn't get to get away with the entire sum of $568M. The team behind the BNB Smart Chain reacted to the hack by suspending the entire thing. The assets were transferred to the hacker's wallet, but have been frozen.

Binance CEO, who goes under the abbreviation of CZ, tweeted:

Community seems to be supportive, and understanding about Binance's team that took quick measures to mitigate the situation. Binance is the world's no. 1 crypto exchange by trading volume, and CZ is the world's richest crypto billionaire. Such a financial safety net creates the feeling of security that any losses will be refunded by the company and it will not affect the users.

Especially when CZ tweeted: 'in all likelihood, Binance will cover any fund that the hackers get away with.'

Celsius Problems

Concerning news regarding the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius case. Celsius bankruptcy court process included such steps as acquiring documents containing data about Celsius' user base, and withdrawals.

The document consists of a whopping 14,500 pages, and is filled with concerning information.

For starters, the court filings revealed that Celsius Network's top execs (Mashinsky, Daniel Leon and Nuke Goldstein) managed to pocket $56 million in crypto just weeks before Celsius announced that they're freezing withdrawals on the platform.

But that's not all. The 14,500-long document is filled with Celsius' user data. It contains users' names, amounts, descriptions and timing of transactions, and many more details. Many regard this as a serious breach of privacy:

Others summarized the situation of Celsius' customers: "rugged and doxed, brutal'.

SEC Chair 'PR Stunt'

Gary Gensler, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) chairman, has caused ripples of criticism towards him for his strict actions towards Kim Kardashian (if you feel out of the loop, you can read more about it here).

Allegedly, Gensler may have violated protocol by overhyping the Kim Kardashian settlement. According to the critics, Gensler grabbed the moment of spotlight (it's Kim Kardashian, after all), and used the momentum to accelerate his political career.

Critics add that the extra attention paid towards communicating the Kim Kardashian's crypto $1.26$ misdemeanor looks straight-up stupid when contrasted against the fact that the SEC failed at spotting, and preventing the collapse of Terra or Celsius.

Why would he do so? As the word in the industry goes, Gensler has clear political aims - to become the Treasury Secretary after Janet Yellen leaves the post.

Judging from today's perspective, it looks like the 'publicity stunt' wasn't sophisticated enough to actually do the trick.

Selected Meme of The Day