This week in crypto: Binance experiences a $100 million cross-chain hack

Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange has lost approximately $100 million in a cross-chain hack carried out earlier this week.

Binance loses $100 million in a cross chain hack

The world’s leading crypto exchange announced earlier this week that it experienced a BNB cross-chain bridge hack. Hackers attempted to siphon $560 million in BNB tokens overnight from the BSC Token Hub, BNBChain’s cross-chain bridge.

However, the attackers successfully drained around $100 million to $130 million from the network.

The BNBChain underwent maintenance for a few hours as the development team the bugs. Binance announced earlier today that the BNBChain is now running normally with the blockchain’s validators having resumed operations.

The attack sent shockwaves in the crypto space, further highlighting the dangers of decentralisation.

The hack also came a few hours after Binance received its operation licence in Kazakhstan. Binance can now operate its cryptocurrency exchange in the country after receiving its licence.

EU bans crypto payments from Russia

The European Union and the United States have placed numerous sanctions on Russia since the war in Ukraine began. Earlier this week, the EU imposed another sanction on Russia.

The EU announced that it has banned cryptocurrency payments from Russia. The ban is designed to restrain Russia’s war in Ukraine, and lay the groundwork for implementing an oil price cap.

In its own move, Russia blocked the website of the crypto exchange OKX. records indicate that OKX’s website was blocked at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation. However, it remains unclear what triggered the move. 

South Korean authorities order Do Kwon to return his passports

Terraform Lab’s founder Do Kwon has been in the news since the Terra project collapsed earlier this year. Earlier this week, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered Do Kwon to return his local passport.

Do Kwon was given 14 days to return his passport. If not surrendered, the passport will be revoked. This implies that Do if Kwon is in South Korea, he won’t be able to leave the country.

Bitwise launches web3-focused ETF

Crypto index fund manager Bitwise Asset Management announced earlier this week that it has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on web3. The ETF grants investors exposure to five categories of web3 companies. 

The five categories of companies include; infrastructure providers, finance, metaverse and digital worlds, web3-enabled creator economy, and development and governance. The Bitwise Web3 ETF (BWEB) is now listed and trading on NYSE Arca.