Ankr confirms exploit, asks for immediate trading halt

The BNB ( $749.01 ) Chain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr has confirmed it has been hit by a multi-million dollar exploit on Dec. 1.

The attacker was purportedly able to mint 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB ( $749.01 ) (a BNB ( $749.01 ) c), a reward-bearing token for BNB ( $749.01 ) ( BNB ( $749.01 ) ) staked on the protocol. The exploiter has since used services such as Uniswap ( $8.73 ) , Tornado Cash, and various bridges to swap and obfuscate the funds and has successfully gained around 5 million USD Coin (USDC)

Seems that @ankr got hacked an hour ago!

The exploiter minted 20T a BNB ( $749.01 ) c and dumped it on #PancakeSwap.

At present, the exploiter have successfully exchanged more than 5 million $USDC.https://t.co/hF1tgNYw0t pic.twitter.com/XIPjBi6wvs

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 2, 2022

It’s believed either a vulnerability in the protocol’s smart contract or a compromise of private keys is to blame for the exploit.

Ankr only made a quick statement on its Twitter page that its “a BNB ( $749.01 ) token has been exploited” and that it is currently working with exchanges to immediately halt trading of the compromised token.

Our a BNB ( $749.01 ) token has been exploited, and we are currently working with exchanges to immediately halt trading.

— Ankr (@ankr) December 2, 2022

Cointelegraph contacted Ankr but did not receive an immediate response.

This is a developing story and more information will be added as it becomes available.