Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_620beb8ed6394" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>BNB, formerly Binance Coin, now stands for “Build and Build” as the blockchain token for the BNB chain</li>
 <li>“Binance doesn’t own the chain, it’s just a contributor in the community and will continue to do so, but the BNB chain is completely running on its own,” Zhao said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has rebranded the blockchain powering its platform in a bid to emphasize decentralization.



In the move, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbsuE60naI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> in a webinar Tuesday that Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is now BNB Chain.



“People always think of Binance Smart Chain, because it carries the Binance word, as something owned by Binance,” Zhao said. “We’ve done a lot of work to decentralize it, and we also realize BNB is beyond Binance. It’s bigger than Binance…BNB is its own living, breathing ecosystem with the BNB Chain.”



<meta charset="utf-8">Meanwhile, the SEC is examining the relationship between Binance’s US arm and two trading firms, Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak Ltd., that have ties to Zhao, people familiar with the probe <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-probes-trading-affiliates-of-crypto-giant-binances-u-s-arm-11644948162?st=oiyo5wi9j7jhzll&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal.



When the exchange&#8217;s blockchain was launched 18 months ago, its creators didn’t consider its Binance branding for what was then just an experiment, according to Samy Karim, who holds the title of BNB Chain coordinator.



“When we started off, we definitely didn’t expect BSC, now BNB chain, to grow to where it is today,” Karim said. “It shows the level of underserved demand there really was, and this type of infrastructure really helped to drive massive new user growth in decentralized applications that wasn’t really happening before.”



BNB, formerly Binance Coin, now stands for “Build and Build” as the blockchain token for the BNB chain.



The chain is a community-driven, decentralized blockchain powered by the token and consists of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As of Tuesday, the total value locked (TVL) in BNB was 25 billion, according to BSCProject <a href="https://bscproject.org/#/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">The rebranding is to stress its independence and deemphasize Binance’s role going forward, Zhao said.&nbsp;</blockquote>



“BSC, now BNB, was an experimental product that we initially contributed to and helped with the initial funding, but now it’s community driven, open sourced and decentralized,” Zhao said. “Binance doesn’t own the chain, it’s just a contributor in the community and will continue to do so, but the BNB chain is completely running on its own. It’s not run by us or anyone else,” he added.&nbsp; 



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Binance

Binance Rebrands Its Blockchain in Overture to Decentralization

<div id="highlights-block_61f4106975893" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“The exploit and loss of funds have a profound effect on thousands of real people,” the company said</li>
 <li>Qubit is continuing to track the exploiter and monitor affected assets and has disabled a number of account management features until further notice</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Hackers have stolen $80 million from DeFi protocol Qubit Finance, the firm confirmed on Friday.&nbsp;



The attackers exploited the protocol to take 206,809 Binance coins through Qubit’s QBridge deposit function, making it the seventh largest DeFi hack ever, DeFiYield Rekt <a href="https://defiyield.app/rekt-database" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> shows.&nbsp;



The QBridge protocol is an Ethereum-BSC (Binance Smart Chain) bridge that allows users to swap ERC-20 and BEP-20 tokens between the two blockchains. The protocol is implemented as a set of smart contracts built on top of the BSC.



The attacker essentially took advantage of a logical error in Qubit Finance’s code that allowed them to input malicious data and withdraw tokens on BSC when none were deposited on Ethereum, blockchain security firm CertiK <a href="https://certik.medium.com/qubit-bridge-collapse-exploited-to-the-tune-of-80-million-a7ab9068e1a0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">explained</a>.&nbsp;



The decentralized money market platform tweeted a statement to notify the exploiter that they were aware of what was happening and proposed a direct negotiation before taking further action.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://t.co/G1WOMglVUU">pic.twitter.com/G1WOMglVUU</a>&mdash; Qubit Finance (@QubitFin) <a href="https://twitter.com/QubitFin/status/1486984216072318977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“The exploit and loss of funds have a profound effect on thousands of real people,” the company said.&nbsp;



The team also contacted the exploiter to offer the maximum bounty as set by its program, it said in a <a href="https://medium.com/@QubitFin/protocol-exploit-report-305c34540fa3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>. It didn’t disclose how much the bounty would be, or if the hacker was receptive.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Qubit is continuing to track the exploiter and monitor affected assets and has disabled a number of account management features until further notice. However, its claiming feature is still available, it said.&nbsp;



“We are continuing to investigate and are in communications with Binance,” Qubit wrote. “Further updates and a full report will be shared as they become available.”



The company was not available for additional comment when requested by Blockworks.&nbsp;



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