High-volume cyber-attacks in the cryptocurrency markets have become more common now. Especially a significant part of DeFi platforms are weak in this regard and attackers know very well what to do. Hackers managed to steal 206,809 Binance Coins (BNB) from Qubit’s QBridge protocol.
Qubit Finance Attack
Qubit Finance on Binance Smart Chain lost $80 million worth of BNB to hackers. Addresses linked to the attack stole 206,809 Binance Coins (BNB) from Qubit’s QBridge protocol. The assets are valued at over $80 million.
According to PeckShield, which analyzes Qubit’s smart contracts, QBridge was hacked by creating a “large amount of xETH collateral” that is used to drain the entire amount of BNB stored on the platform. In a report by security firm CertiK, the attacker used a deposit option in the QBridge contract to illegally mint 77,162 qXETH, an asset representing Ethereum bridged via Qubit. The protocol led the attackers to believe that they deposited money even though they did not.
According to CertiK, the hacker performed these actions multiple times, eventually converting all assets into Binance Coin. This makes the exploit the seventh largest in DeFi, according to DeFiYield Rekt data.
Qubit Made a Statement
The Qubit team sent out an announcement to inform their users that they are still monitoring the hacker and its affected assets. The announcement also mentions that the attacker was contacted and promised the highest award in their program. With this announcement, the team deactivated their systems.
Earlier this month, decentralized financial security platform and bug bounty service Immunefi announced that cybercrime losses exceeded $10.2 billion in 2021. On January 17, the popular crypto exchange Cryptocom suffered about $34 million in losses after a security breach.
Crypto platforms have also started to announce reward programs to minimize these risks. If you detect a vulnerability in the system and report it to the team, you can receive a goodwill award based on the risk score of the systemic vulnerability.
These events, especially on DeFi platforms, are not the first and will not be the last. In order not to lose your savings all at once, you need to research the systems you prefer in matters such as staking, farming, and make sure that regular penetration tests are carried out.
