DeFi Hacker Steals $12.7M In Bitcoin From Binance Smart Chain-Based pNetwork

Another DeFi hack has resulted in the loss of $12.7 million worth of Bitcoin BTC/USD from a cross-chain DeFi protocol.

What Happened: Earlier today, pNetwork PNT/USD reported that a hacker exploited a bug in the protocol’s codebase and made off with 277 pBTC (tokenized Bitcoin) worth around $12.7 million at the time.

1/N We're sorry to inform the community that an attacker was able to leverage a bug in our codebase and attack pBTC on BSC, stealing 277 BTC (most of its collateral).

The other bridges were not affected. All other funds in the pNetwork are safe.

— pNetwork

Since the announcement, pNetwork’s native token PNT has lost 18% of its value. At the time of writing, PNT was trading at a price of $0.9677.

“To pTokens users. We are really sorry about what happened. We are working on a solution for users who were affected by the attack (pBTC on BSC holders only). We will keep you posted on this,” said the network in a statement.

The project also reached out to the hacker with an appeal to return the stolen funds.

“Although this is a long shot, we're offering a clean $1,500,000 bounty if funds are returned,” they said.

“Finding vulnerabilities is part of the game unfortunately, but we all want DeFi ecosystem to continue growing, returning funds is a step in that direction.”

Last month, Poly Network, another cross-chain DeFi protocol was subject to an exploit that resulted in a loss of funds exceeding $600 million.

The project’s fate wasn’t as dire as one might have expected. In an unlikely turn of events, the hacker opted to return the entire sum claiming he was “not interested in money.”

Poly Network went on to offer the hacker the position of “chief security advisor” and a reward of $500,000 for his role in identifying vulnerabilities in its codebase.

Price Action: Most cryptocurrencies sold off on Monday, with the overall crypto market cap falling 8% in the last 24-hours. Bitcoin and Ethereum ETH/USD dropped by 7% while most altcoins recorded double-digit losses over the same period.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay