On October 29, crypto suffered two hacks in one evening. And neither one broke the blockchain.
Binance: about $6.3 billion from hot wallets across 10 networks. The biggest hack in history; the previous record was Bybit, at $1.5 billion.
Polymarket: ~$2.7 million from more than 700 accounts.
A difference of more than 2,000 times. The method was the same.
Polymarket: a contractor’s script, which was only supposed to measure the site’s speed, was tampered with. In the browser, it gained the site’s own permissions and sold users’ positions.
Binance: according to the exchange’s initial account, a DevOps engineer’s laptop was hacked, and through it, a service container that handled withdrawals. More points of entry were found later.
The cryptography held up. The smart contracts held up. The laptop and analytics script didn’t.
For now: ~$3 billion frozen; the trail leads to North Korea’s TraderTraitor; Binance promises to cover all losses. $BNB fell by 8% in a day.
Practical advice: after hacks like these, scammers launch a wave of “compensation” scams: fake websites and emails from “Binance Support.” The exchange’s wallets were affected, not your balances. There are no compensation claims to file. Any “payout” link is a second hack. This time, of you.
After this evening, would you keep more on an exchange or in a cold wallet? Why?
Binance: about $6.3 billion from hot wallets across 10 networks. The biggest hack in history; the previous record was Bybit, at $1.5 billion.
Polymarket: ~$2.7 million from more than 700 accounts.
A difference of more than 2,000 times. The method was the same.
Polymarket: a contractor’s script, which was only supposed to measure the site’s speed, was tampered with. In the browser, it gained the site’s own permissions and sold users’ positions.
Binance: according to the exchange’s initial account, a DevOps engineer’s laptop was hacked, and through it, a service container that handled withdrawals. More points of entry were found later.
The cryptography held up. The smart contracts held up. The laptop and analytics script didn’t.
For now: ~$3 billion frozen; the trail leads to North Korea’s TraderTraitor; Binance promises to cover all losses. $BNB fell by 8% in a day.
Practical advice: after hacks like these, scammers launch a wave of “compensation” scams: fake websites and emails from “Binance Support.” The exchange’s wallets were affected, not your balances. There are no compensation claims to file. Any “payout” link is a second hack. This time, of you.
After this evening, would you keep more on an exchange or in a cold wallet? Why?
