Web3 Infrastructure Platform Ankr Exploited In A Multi-Million Dollar Hack

Web3 infrastructure platform Ankr faced a massive exploit earlier today with the hacker reportedly exploiting the platform for millions of dollars. As per early details, the hacker has reportedly minted 10 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc).

aBNBc is a reward-bearing token for BNB available on the Ankr protocol. Also, details from BSCScan show that the Ankr exploited transferred 900 BNB coins to Tornado Cash.

Earlier, the BNB chain had launched the liquid staking function via Ankr. This allowed users to earn interest by allocating BNB tokens to the liquid staking agreement while obtaining aBNBc. Post the exploit, the price of aBNBc has tanked by a staggering 99.5%.

Either a vulnerability in the smart contract or a compromise in the private keys could be the reason behind the exploit. Citing data from DeBank, crypto journalist Colin Wu reports:

0x8d… took advantage of the Ankr loophole, used 10 BNB to exchange 183,384.92 aBNBc, and then converted to hBNB and staked it into Helio Protocol to lend more than $16m BHAY0 and exchanged it into HAY0. The stablecoin HAY once fell to $0.2.

Ankr Confirms the Exploit

In their latest tweet, the Web3 infrastructure platform Ankr has admitted to the exploit. It noted:

Our aBNB token has been exploited, and we are currently working with exchanges to immediately halt trading. All underlying assets on Ankr Staking are safe at this time, and all infrastructure services are unaffected.

This year has witnessed a flood of massive crypto exploits with billions of dollars of investors’ funds lost. These exploits have been quite prominent in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market.

Back in October, Binance Coins worth $100 million were stolen in a cross-bridge attack connecting BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Chain (BEP20 or BSC). In the same month, Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Mango Markets became the victim of an attack losing $100 million from its DeFi protocol.