Bitcoin (BTC) worth around $80,000 was lost in a potential exploit on the BNB Chain involving several suspicious transactions. Although $80,000 is a relatively small amount compared to typical crypto exploits, it has raised concerns about the attacker’s intentions.
The identity of the exploited token contract remains unknown, but according to on-chain security firm Cyvers, the attacker could be a white hat hacker or ethical hacker who uses their skills to identify security vulnerabilities. Cyvers stated in a post on May 28 that they believe this could be the case.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Cyvers for further comment on the matter.
Interestingly, the exploiter not only received funding from the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash but also interacted with Binance, the largest centralized exchange in the world. Normally, sophisticated crypto hackers with malicious intent avoid interacting with such exchanges because they require Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, which could potentially expose their identities.
This potential exploit comes just a week after Gala Games experienced an exploit resulting in the theft of $23 million worth of Gala (GALA) tokens. Gala Games co-founder and CEO Eric Schiermeyer explained that the exploit was due to an issue with their internal controls, which the team has since addressed and resolved.
In an unexpected turn of events, the hacker returned $22.3 million worth of Ether (ETH), which is close to the market value of the 600 million GALA tokens they had stolen and sold the previous day. The return of the funds occurred after the attacker’s wallet was frozen with the stolen funds. Eric Schiermeyer announced in a post on May 20 that the alleged attacker had been identified, including their home address.
This is the second incident in May where a thief has chosen to return stolen funds. Earlier this month, $71 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen in a recent wallet poisoning scam were also returned to the victim. The unknown attacker returned the funds on May 12 after the high-profile phishing incident caught the attention of several blockchain investigation firms.
However, based on on-chain transactions, it appears that the attacker was not an ethical hacker but rather a malicious actor who became fearful of the widespread attention and decided to return the funds.
In other news, a Hong Kong streaming firm has announced plans to purchase $100 million worth of cryptocurrency. Additionally, Worldcoin has faced sanctions, as reported by Asia Express.