Hacker Caught in Crypto Liquidation Wave Faces $63 Million Loss
CRYPTO — This week’s unexpected drop in the value of cryptocurrencies drove out legions of speculators, and according to data from blockchains, it also flushed out the person responsible for a massive breach. According to Blockchain forensics firm PeckShield, a cryptocurrency wallet that was related to a theft of approximately $600 million worth of Binance Coin (BNB) in October had digital asset collateral with a total value of $63 million liquidated on the cryptocurrency lending site Venus Protocol. The hacker had offered the cryptocurrency that had been taken as security for a loan of USDT stablecoin worth $30 million.
The identity of the hacker or hacking gang that attacked the “cross-chain bridge” that is also known as BSC Token Hub is still unknown. The cyber collective known as Lazarus Group has been tied to the government of North Korea, and they have been blamed for other similar attacks that have rocked the cryptocurrency industry over the previous two years.
According to Coinglass, a rise in global bond yields shattered weeks of calm in the digital asset market, sending Bitcoin and other tokens falling. This caused more than one billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency positions to be unwound within a period of twenty-four hours.
Because of the so-called smart contracts that control decentralized-finance protocols like Venus, the individual who exploited BNB was not an exception to this rule. As soon as the value of BNB fell below $220, the three collateral positions that were connected to the wallet were instantly liquidated. On Friday morning at 10:08 local time in London, the price of BNB was hovering at $219.
According to PeckShield, who spoke with Bloomberg News through Telegram, the hacker had borrowed a total of $147.5 million worth of stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, and BUSD by placing 900,000 BNB from the October robbery as collateral on Venus. At the market price on Friday, this amount would be equivalent to almost $197 million. Liquidations are sparked by the recent drop in the price of bitcoin, which weighs on SpaceX’s token sale.
