Cryptocurrency [loss] $19M+

"Binance Bungles Accounting for Helium Tokens, Overpays Clients Millions"

2022-09-16 [vendor] Binance bug with Helium token [chain] ethereum
Primary Source ↗
Financial Loss $19.0M (19,000,000 USD)
Blockchain(s) Ethereum

Incident Details

Helium has two different tokens: HNT, which is paid out to people who run Helium hotspots, and MOBILE, which is paid to those maintaining the new Helium 5G network. However, Binance erroneously treated both tokens as HNT within their exchange. As a result, anyone who sent MOBILE to Binance wound up with that same number of HNT tokens in their wallet — a big benefit, given that HTN has traded between $4 and $7 this past month, and MOBILE is not yet easily tradable.Binance distributed around 4.8 million HNT before discovering and patching the bug, valued at around $19 million.

Total loss estimated at $19,000,000.

Technical Details

Initial Attack Vector
Software bug / unintentional loss
Vendor / Product
Binance bug with Helium token

Timeline

  1. 2022-09-16 Breach occurred
  2. 2022-09-16 Publicly disclosed