After Stealing $600 Million, These Hackers Lost $50 Million After Sudden Market Downturn

• In 2022, a hacking attempt happened, leading to the theft of about 2 million BNB tokens. 
• In 2023, a market downturn led to more than $53 million in liquidation from the hackers’ wallets. 

Crypto hacking is when cybercriminals access a wallet, protocol, or even a smart contract to steal funds. The same thing happened to Binance in 2022. However, the hacker’s wallets are closely monitored. After the market downturn on the 18th of August, one of the wallets had a $53 million liquidation. Here’s how it happened. 

History of the Stolen Funds By Hackers 

• Before losing up to $53 million due to the market crash, something happened many years ago. On October 6, 2022, there was a successful hacking attempt in the cross-chain bridge of the BNB Smart Chain blockchain network. Although there was a suspension of the bridge where the hack happened, the hackers made away with so much money. 
• Apparently, they left with approximately 2 million BNB tokens worth $568 million during the theft. Since the hack, several wallet wallets associated with the hack receive constant monitoring. 

Market Downturn Wipes $1 Billion In Liquidations 

• The crypto market downturn affected the whole industry. However, it looks a lot worse when you look at the numbers. Apparently, the entire crypto market experienced a 6% decline on August 18. 
• This made the overall value of the crypto industry drop massively. In fact, the overall market value made a drop to $1.1 trillion. Furthermore, data from Coinglass shows the industry lost a whopping $1 billion in liquidations just within 24 hours. 
• For the first time in many months, the apex cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, saw a decline of more than 8%. Bit by bit, Bitcoin went down to the $28k level, $27k, and even $26k. It wasn’t also the best scenario for other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. However, the hacker also took a hit from the market downturn. 

Hackers Losses $50 Due to Market Downturn 

• Data from blockchain security firm PeckShield provide more insights into how the hackers lost more than $50 million due to the market downturn. Apparently, Peckshield monitored one of the wallets associated with the successful hacking attempt. 
• Then they found a liquidation record from collateral worth more than $53 million from the hacker’s crypto wallet. Furthermore, the occurrence of liquidation happened on the Venus Protocol crypto lending platform on August 18. There are speculations that the hacker used the tokens as collateral for a $30 million Tether loan. However, this is not confirmed. The only confirmation is that their entire $53 million fell through in the liquidation. 
• Moreover, the market downturn isn’t looking good for the BNB token. It is one of the top crypto tokens with major dips. The market downturn made the price go down below the $220 level. At the time of writing, the price of BNB is around $216. 

Conclusion 

Nemesis is finally catching up with the hackers who stole approximately $600 million worth of BNB back then in 2022. The market downturn affected one of their wallets. This wallet was a victim of a $53 million liquidation due to the crash. Moreover, the whole crypto industry received the effects with a 6% drop in the total value.