The other day, it was hacked by a DeFi protocol. As a result of the attack, the hacker obtained about 5 million dollars in crypto money. However, an altcoin trader took advantage of the attack to earn a larger income compared to the hacker. Here are the details…
Ankr hack worked for this altcoin trader
When the BNB Chain-based protocol Ankr was exploited and a hacker sold Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc) tokens, a trader took advantage of price discrepancies and turned $2,879 into $15.5 million. As we reported as Kriptokoin.com, security firm Beosin stated that the multimillion-dollar exploit was caused by security vulnerabilities in the smart contract code.
He suggested that the problem may have been caused by private keys compromised due to a technical upgrade. After the hacker minted and sold 20 trillion aBNBc tokens, the price of aBNBc dropped significantly. While this was happening, a trader reacted quickly and took advantage of an opportunity. Analytics platform Lookonchain analyzed on-chain data and shared how a trader recently managed to raise $15.5 million by navigating the Helio Protocol platform.
How were the trades of the trader who made 50x?
According to Lookonchain, the trader bought 183,885 aBNBc with only 10 BNB after the Ankr attacker sold aBNBc. After that, the trader deposited aBNBc in Helio Protocol and used the funds to borrow 16 million HAY tokens as collateral. In the end, the trader traded HAY for 15.5 million Binance USD (BUSD), making a profit of 5,209 times his original capital. Exploiting the vulnerabilities may have affected Helio’s total locked value (TVL), as well as losses from trading.
Before the attack, the TVL of the HAY stablecoin was approximately $87 million. However, at the time of this writing, DefiLlama is showing that HAY has a currently locked total of $0. In an announcement to its community, Helio Protocol has told users that their assets are safe. It also guaranteed that all staked BNBs are within the validators. Currently, the protocol has suspended all its functions. In addition, HAY asks its owners not to take any action.
ANKR to reissue aBNBc tokens
Ankr, which recently asked decentralized exchanges to stop trading, mentioned that it will reissue aBNBc tokens. The platform promised to assess the situation and compensate the affected users. Meanwhile, crypto exchange Binance paused Ankr token withdrawals. It froze $3 million worth of assets that the hacker moved to the trading platform. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, conveyed the said development on Twitter.
Further instructions from the Ankr team:
1. Do not trade
2. Remove liquidity from DEXes if you are a liquidity provider (and keep the aBNBc)
3. Snapshot will be done and wait for additional news
4. Will do a reissuance of aBNBc— Ankr (@ankr) December 2, 2022
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