Friday Crypto News Roundup

Binance stopped its blockchain network earlier today after hackers stole more than $100 million in BNB tokens.

A cross-chain bridge connecting with its Binance Smart Chain (BSC) was reportedly targeted by hackers, allowing them to take BNB tokens from the network. So-called cross-chain bridges are tools that allow the transfer of tokens from one blockchain to another.

While a team of developers looks into the incident, Binance claimed it had collaborated with transaction validators to freeze the creation of new blocks on the Binance Smart Chain and suspend all transaction processing.

Binance’s Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, Better known as CZ, , said in a tweet earlier today. "An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC,”

Binance stated “The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly.”

A BSC spokesperson told CNBC earlier today that between $100 million and $110 million in BNB tokens were stolen from BSC.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the value of BNB dropped more than 3% Friday morning to $285.36.

However, according to the blockchain security firm SlowMist, the exploit enabled hackers to steal approximately $570 million in digital assets like as Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

According to data from blockchain analytics company Chain-analysis, cyberattacks on cross-chain bridges have cost investors a total of almost $1.4 billion since the beginning of the year.

Turning up the heat on Celsius Network

On to our next story…Let’s take another look at what’s been going on at Celsius Network

Former Celsius chief withdraws $42 million before freezing on customers

Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius Network withdrew $42 million dollars between May and June 2022 before the crypto lending firm suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy.

According to a Statement of Financial Affairs, Mashinsky along with former strategy chief Daniel Leon, and former CTO Nuke Goldstein, withdrew BTC, ETH, USDC, and CEL from custody accounts before Celsius suspended withdrawals.

The crypto lending firm filed for bankruptcy on June 17 last year a month after stopping transactions. The company cited extreme market volatility as the main reason for freezing customer accounts.

The company was considered to be one of the largest lenders in the crypto space with approximately 1.7 million clients offering up to 17% yield. We’ll be bringing you updates on that story soon…

EU Crypto Regulations

Our last story this week is about regulations.

The Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), a ground-breaking piece of legislation, and a second regulation requiring the disclosure of the identities of persons making crypto payments have been approved by the European Union (EU).

In order to prevent collapses similar to those that happened in Terra, MiCA puts reserve limits for stablecoins as well as the first-ever licensing scheme for crypto wallets and exchanges operating within the EU. In an attempt to combat money laundering, a different regulation on funds transfers mandates that wallet providers validate their customers' identities.

The text must also be formally agreed to the European Parliament legislators and is anticipated to be published in the EU's official journal in early next year before taking effect in 2024.

What do you think about these regulations? Are you happy with wallet apps validating your identity?