"Binance Freezes $3 Million Worth of Crypto Stolen in Ankr Hack"

After Ankr, the hacking of the Web3 infrastructure provider, Binance, one of the last remaining cryptocurrency giants, froze nearly $3 million in cryptocurrency. Ankr stated that $5 million in Binance coin was stolen from the platform. The provider plans to compensate all users for their losses. Helio, another platform, confirmed that it was also targeted in a related attack. According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the platform was suspending Ankr token withdrawals, and the Ankr attack involved the hacking of a developer's private key. Ankr is a distributed node operator for proof-of-stake networks that allows users to stake their tokens without purchasing the necessary hardware. Someone used the developer's private key to mint six quadrillion aBNBc, Ankr's cryptocurrency. The hacker then exchanged aBNBc for other assets, including about 4.5 million USDC, a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar, which it then exchanged for ETH. The hacker transferred approximately $3 million of the stolen funds to Tornado Cash, a popular mixing service used by cybercriminals and nation-states to conceal the source of funds and convert cryptocurrency to fiat currency. The service ensures that the source of the funds is untraceable, providing complete asset privacy. The hacker's wallet now contains more than $1 million in Ethereum, $29,000 in Binance coin, and more than $775,000 in Polygon. It was unclear how much money was stolen in the attack after another cryptocurrency platform, Helio, stated that it had been compromised in connection with Ankr's incident. This article continues to discuss Binance freezing about $3 million worth of cryptocurrency after Ankr was hacked.

The Record reports "Binance Freezes $3 Million Worth of Crypto Stolen in Ankr Hack"