By The Financial District
Dec 3, 20221 min
Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, paused withdrawals and notified users of possible hacks of two crypto tokens Friday, according to a tweet by its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, Diksha Madhok reported for CNN Business.
Photo Insert: The apparent attack comes at a time when the digital assets industry is struggling with the financial contagion unleashed by the fall of crypto exchange FTX.
“Possible hacks on Ankr and Hay,” Zhao said on Twitter. “Initial analysis is developer private key was hacked, and the hacker updated the smart contract to a more malicious one.”
The term “smart contract” is a term used to describe computer code that automatically executes all or parts of an agreement. It is usually stored on a blockchain-based platform.
In a separate tweet, Binance reassured its users by saying that “this is not an attack” against the company, and that its team is “engaged” with “relevant parties…to investigate further.”
Binance did not elaborate on the matter despite requests from CNN Business and other media outlets.
The apparent attack comes at a time when the digital assets industry is struggling with the financial contagion unleashed by the fall of crypto exchange FTX, which was worsened when Binance refused to rescue the company and also denied help to Genesis, another crypto exchange.