Hackers Steal $13.5 Million in Crypto From Bancor

A compromised wallet was used to withdraw ETH, NPXS, and BNT.

Bancor (BNT), a blockchain project that leverages the capabilities of smart contracts to build liquidity directly into tokens themselves, revealed today that a security breach resulted in the loss of $13.5 million in cryptocurrency.

According to the announcement, hackers were able to take advantage of a compromised wallet that was used to upgrade smart contracts in the Bancor protocol to withdraw 24,984 ETH ($12.5 million). Additional amounts stolen include 229,356,645 in PundiX (NPXS) and 3,200,000 in Bancor (BNT), adding $1 million and $10 million to the total stolen, respectively.

Bancor’s team noted that it was able to freeze the transfer of BNT tokens, which is a feature of the Bancor protocol. However, this is not possible for the stolen ETH and NPXS, but they plan to work with exchanges in an attempt to trace the liquidation of the funds.

Bancor is managed by the Bprotocol Foundation, which was established in 2017 in order to promote the adoption of the Bancor Protocol as a global standard for Smart Tokens. Notable investor Tim Draper is currently an advisor to the Bprotocol Foundation.

The price of Bancor (BNT) is down over 19% over the last 24 hours in response to the security breach, leaving the project with a $127 million market cap.

As a result of the breach, Bancor has made the decision to place its platform into maintenance mode but expects to be back online within the next 24 hours. Although Bancor does not hold any user assets, the website maintenance message reassures users, “Your wallet and your funds are always safe, secure and under your possession on the blockchain at all times.”