Category: BNB

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Binance BNB Crypto News DeFi Hackers

Binance Network Suffers $560 Million Code Exploit

hacker with phone with binance logo

An exploit of a bug in the Binance-run blockchain network, BNB Chain, allowed a hacker to ‘trick’ the BNB Chain’s BSC Token Hub bridge into sending them roughly US$560 million worth of BNB tokens. This incident renewed concerns involving the security of cross-chain bridges.

The Binance team responded by suspending activity made on the Binance blockchain, freezing a majority of the stolen assets. It’s estimated that the hacker made off with roughly US$100 million worth of assets on other chains.

Within a day of suspension, BNB Chain tweeted that the bridge was up and running again:

In the days following the hack, the price of BNB fell by 5-7%.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Investor funds safe, extra BNB created

BNB Chain is not the first cross-chain bridge to experience a major hack — around $US$625 million worth of WETH and USDC was drained from Ronin earlier in 2022, considered one of the biggest hacks in the history of crypto. 

As the BNB Chain hack was revealed, Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao quickly moved to reassure users, tweeting that funds were safe:

The ‘extra’ BNB were essentially created from nothing, through an exploit of the bridge’s code.

A detailed analysis tweeted by security expert @samczsun explains how the hack may have been carried out, summarising by saying, “there was a bug in the way that the Binance bridge verified proofs which could have allowed attackers to forge arbitrary messages.”  

Next Steps: On-Chain Governance Vote

BNB Chain has said governance votes will determine how to approach the next steps in relation to whether to freeze the hacked funds, whether to use BNB Auto-Burn to cover the remaining hacked funds, and how to deliver a Whitehat program to find future bugs and reward hackers with bounties.

The platform also committed to contributing to a broader conversation about the vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridges, stating:

“We will openly share the details of the postmortem and all lessons on how to implement more advanced security measures to shore-up these vulnerabilities.”

BNB Chain
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Binance BNB Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Regulation

US Regulator Investigates Whether BNB Token is an ‘Unregistered Security’

US market regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into whether global crypto exchange Binance violated securities law by selling its BNB in an initial coin offering (ICO) some five years ago.

String of Regulatory Challenges

The SEC’s investigation into BNB, now the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, relates to its ICO in 2017 where it is alleged it was sold without being registered.

In response to the allegations, a spokesperson from Binance commented:

As the industry has grown at a rapid pace, we have been working very diligently to educate and assist law enforcement and regulators in the US and internationally, while also adhering to new guidelines. We will continue to meet all requirements set by regulators.

Binance statement

At this early stage, information remains somewhat limited with Binance adding that it “would not be appropriate for us to comment on our ongoing conversations with regulators, which include education, assistance, and voluntary responses to information requests”.

Binance’s CEO, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, was less diplomatic in his assessment:

Aside from the SEC investigating several other high-profile ICOs, Binance is also under the microscope after it was hit with a US$5 million class-action lawsuit in which users claimed the exchange sold them 79 different crypto assets (including Dogecoin, Solana, and Cardano) that should have been properly registered as securities.

Vocal Responses from the Bitcoin Community

Max Keiser, Bitcoin maximalist and co-host of the Orange Pill podcast, did not mince his words in response to the news:

Cory Klippsten, founder of Swan Bitcoin exchange, was somewhat more charitable, while sharing the sentiment held by the majority of Bitcoiners:

Michael Saylor, the inimitable founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, has previously said he is of the view that everything outside of Bitcoin is a security. Given that Saylor has spent the better part of three decades operating in US capital markets, you’d imagine he and his legal team have their finger on the regulatory pulse.

Saylor certainly made the point crystal clear in a recent interview with former hedge fund manager Raoul Pal, in which the two clashed over what Pal considered to be “outdated securities laws”:

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Australia Binance Blockchain BNB Crypto News Play to Earn Solana Tokens

Move-To-Earn Token STEPN Has Soared 217x in 2022  

Active types can now get paid to exercise and breathe in the fresh outdoor air with new Australian fitness app STEPN – an NFT-based play-to-move Web3 crypto “game” powered by the Solana blockchain.

Following in the footsteps of Genopets – the first move-to-earn NFT crypto game developed on Solana – STEPN is basically a mash-up of Apple’s step-counting Health app with Axie Infinity-style play-to-earn (P2E) tokenomics.

With over half a million downloads so far on Android alone, STEPN has taken off and so has its governance token, $GMT.

STEPN’s Green Metaverse Token (GMT) has sprinted upwards, increasing five-fold in value over the past month, from US$0.65 to an all-time high of US$3.79. $GMT is the token required for making upgrades to the App’s in-game NFT virtual sneakers. GMT’s market cap is now over US$2 billion and the token is currently ranked #60.


STEPN price chart (GMT). Source: CoinGecko.com

The most recent 26 percent spike came after STEPN announced a partnership with Japanese sports apparel giant Asics on April 18 via Twitter, launching a sneaker sale on the Binance NFT marketplace. Selected subscribers will be able to purchase the first STEPN sneakers on the BNB Chain version of the game:

Earn Crypto Exercising Outside

Users can earn crypto by walking or running with the STEPN App. The app tracks movement via your phone’s GPS and rewards are paid in STEPN’s game token: Green Satoshi Token (GST), which can be traded for USD Coin (USDC) or Solana (SOL).

Players begin by choosing a fitness level that suits their goals, which also determines how many tokens can be earned using the app. The four tiers are divided by different types of virtual sneakers: walker, jogger, runner or trainer. STEPN sneaker NFTs can be found and purchased from the in-app marketplace. Check the stepn.com website for full instructions on how to play.

Since the game has taken off, the price to get started playing has elevated accordingly. Currently the floor price for a pair of sneakers is 13.67 SOL (US$1,400+). Participants in the upcoming STEPN Shoebox sale on Binance will be offered mystery boxes containing a pair of NFT Sneakers of random quality and type, for 0.5 BNB (US$210).

STEPN plans to implement a sneaker-rental feature, coming soon to combat the high cost to entry.

How to Start STEPN

  1. Download the app from the App store (available for Android and Apple) and log in with your email address and verification code.
  2. Get verified. Join the official Discord and Telegram channels and get your activation code to enter the app on your phone. Note: due to popular demand, the development team is only releasing 1000 activation codes per day via Discord and 1000 per day via Telegram. You have to be quick, as codes refresh at midnight AEDT. You can also follow @Stepnofficial on Twitter for more activation code releases.
  3. Link your Solana wallet in the STEPN app and purchase your first pair of virtual sneakers from the STEPN marketplace. Sneakers can be customised and enhanced to increase token rewards.

STEPN buzz continues to gain traction amid rumours of further upcoming partnership announcements with other big shoe brands, including Nike and Adidas. Since the STEPN token sale in March, the app is off to a flying start, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Whether the move-to-earn model can prove sustainable over time will be the real test, but for now STEPN is showing no signs of slowing down.

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Blockchain BNB Crypto News GameFi Gaming Metaverse

BNB Chain to Launch Application-Specific Sidechains to Reduce Network Strain 

BNB Chain is on the move to add application-specific sidechains to the blockchain to help with scalability and streamline data-heavy applications like gaming and the metaverse.

BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the Layer 1 solution developed by Binance, will start including sidechains to improve its scalability. Similar to Polkadot’s (DOT) parachains, these BNB Chain Application Sidechains (BAS) aim to cut costs and increase the speed of transactions for resource-intense applications such as gaming, SocialFi, and the metaverse.

Binance Labs – the core development team of BNB Chain – has yet to reveal all the technical details. However, the possibility has been ruled out that these sidechains become equal layer 1 blockchains, which is the case with parachains.

A BNB Chain spokesperson told The Block:

The BAS is an infrastructure introduced to help developers and node operators build and run their own blockchain as their internal value system for a massive number of users while still maintaining a close connection with BNB Chain.

BNB spokesperson

It’s All About the Use Case

The point of application-specific sidechains is to allow each chain to focus on a specific use case. According to the BNB spokesperson, the sidechains will host BNB-compatible dApps and will be able to operate independently of the mainnet – allowing teams to customise for their own security needs, instead of relying on the mainnet.

Sidechains to Open Doors for Large-Scale Applications

A valid comparison to BAS is Ronin, a sidechain on Ethereum dedicated solely to Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn game. Similarly, the very first BAS testnet will focus on GameFi, according to the BNB spokesperson.

BNB Chain ecosystem coordinator Samy Karim has mentioned previously that “BNB Chain will embrace large-scale applications, including GameFi, SocialFi and the Metaverse. In particular, scaling from one chain to multi-chain, improving scaling solutions and expanding the validator set of BSC from 21 to 41 (with 20 validators functioning as candidate block producers).”

Binance has been making various moves as of late, from acquiring traditional businesses and bringing them into the crypto space to now adding sidechains to facilitate specific use cases. The centralised giant may still have a big role to play in the crypto space.