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BNB Bridge / BSC Token Hub: Forged Cryptographic Proof / IAVL Verification Bypass

An attacker forged two cryptographic deposit proofs to mint 2 million BNB ($586M) from the BNB Bridge — then Binance simply paused the entire blockchain to limit damage, revealing the centralisation behind "DeFi's 3rd largest L1."

Occurred 2022-10-06 Loss $586M Status closed

Summary #

BNB Bridge / BSC Token Hub suffered a Cross-Chain Bridge on 2022-10-06, resulting in a loss of approximately $586M.

What happened #

An attacker forged two cryptographic deposit proofs to mint 2 million BNB ($586M) from the BNB Bridge — then Binance simply paused the entire blockchain to limit damage, revealing the centralisation behind "DeFi's 3rd largest L1."

Linked factors #

  • RD-F-004 — causal : Audit count likely 0; floor display [via dashboard_risk_factors/Vulnerability in audited or unaudited code: Unaudited for this specific flaw]
  • RD-F-111 — causal : Team doxx status — pseudonymous-no-track-record class [via dashboard_risk_factors/Team anonymity: Binance / centralised team (not anonymous)]