Bitfinex Thwarts $15 Billion Worth Attack on XRP Tokens on Platform

Bitfinex, the cryptocurrency exchange, successfully foiled an attempt by an attacker to exploit around $15 billion worth of XRP. The Chief Technology Officer, Paolo Ardoino, confirmed the incident, describing it as an unsuccessful effort to exploit the partial payments feature.

Someone attempted to attack @bitfinex via "Partial Payments Exploit".
Attack failed since Bitfinex properly handles 'delivered_amount' data field.https://t.co/EiGw9UQmmq

(updated with better gif) https://t.co/8I7vlO05ou pic.twitter.com/DxOnJLLkhU

— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) January 14, 2024

What Happened With Bitfinex?

In a recent incident, blockchain tracking account Whale Alert initially reported a significant transfer of 25.6 billion XRP, nearly half of the circulating supply, from an unidentified wallet to Bitfinex. However, Whale Alert later retracted the post, citing issues with accurately reading the Ripple node response.

Bitfinex’s Chief Technology Officer, Paolo Ardoino, clarified on social media platform X that the situation involved an attempted attack on Bitfinex through a “Partial Payments Exploit.” The attacker believed that the exchange had misconfigured its software to process partial payments, allowing for potential exploitation.

The partial payments exploit strategy relies on the assumption that a company’s system only reads the “amount” field of an XRP transaction, which is set to a high value. The attacker then sends a much smaller amount, specified in another transaction field, aiming to receive credit for the difference from the company.

Ardoino emphasized that the attack failed because “Bitfinex properly handles the ‘delivered_amount’ data field.” Additionally, blockchain data revealed that the attacker also attempted a similar attack on Binance, involving a 58.9 billion XRP transfer, which also proved unsuccessful.

Navigating Regulatory challenges

Last week, Bitfinex UK implemented crucial changes to the platform requiring its customers to adopt the changing rules.

In the latest announcement from Bitfinex’s UK subsidiary, the exchange has implemented a significant change affecting customers who registered their accounts on or after November 1, 2023. These users are no longer eligible to apply for individual account verification, with Bitfinex emphasizing that this policy is now permanent.

This shift is not exclusive to individual investors, as crypto investors are also encompassed by the new measures. Bitfinex now restricts account verification to “High Net Worth” individuals, indicating that traders must meet specific financial criteria. The exchange may request additional documentation to verify compliance with the current UK laws defining high net worth status.

For existing customers, additional restrictions came into effect from January 10. This group of investors is now unable to make new deposits, enter into new contracts, or increase existing margin positions on the trading platform. Despite these limitations, existing Bitfinex UK customers retain the ability to reduce or close their positions and withdraw funds from the platform. Bitfinex has established a support line to assist users with inquiries and navigate through this service disruption.