Hackers have plagued the world of cryptocurrency transactions with numerous hacking attacks. Almost every month, a cryptocurrency exchange gets hacked or is attempted to hack. While some exchanges such as Binance are able to defend their systems, others are not as lucky. Recent hacks such as the ones that took down Coincheck have been quite financially damaging. After an attempted hacking attack on their exchange, Binance has decided to fight back, setting a $250,000 bounty on identifying the hackers.

This attempt to identify the hackers and fight back against those who had attempted to attack their system is a first of its kind move in the world of cryptocurrencies. Binance has stated that they realize that it was an organized and large-scale attack against them. The company has now declared a bounty equivalent of $250,000 to anyone who helps find information that leads to the arrest of the hackers who attacked Binance on March 7th, 2018. 

Binance will be paying this bounty to the first person who provides relevant information about these hackers, from any jurisdiction around the world. The bounty will be paid in the form of BNB (Binance Coin) Tokens worth $250,000. Binance is asking anyone who may hold any information on these hackers to contact them at bounty@binance.com, as well as to a local police station. The company also states that if the local laws allow so, those sending these details can remain anonymous.

Binance declared that a sum of $10,000,000 USD in crypto reserves has now been specially allocated for future bounty awards against any illegal hacking attempts on their platform. They are asking other exchanges and cryptocurrency platforms to join this initiative as well. 

For those who may have missed out on the Binance hacking attempt, hackers were trying to collect login information using phishing attacks. After collecting enough login IDs, hackers created API bots for each account and finding the opportune moment, pumped Viacoin (VIA) prices using pre-bought currency.  However, Binance’s platform had security alerts set for any such abnormal trading activity and they managed to freeze the funds. This led to the hackers losing funds in the attack! The excess funds that Binance gained after the hacking attack were donated to charity.

“To ensure a safe crypto community, we can’t simply play defence. We need to actively prevent any instances of hacking before they occur, as well as follow through after-the-fact. Even though the hacking attempt against Binance on March 7th was not successful, it was clear it was a large-scale, organized effort. This needs to be addressed,” a press statement from Binance reads. 

Over the past few months, there has been a sharp rise in cryptocurrency hacks. The biggest such example was that of the Coincheck hack - which resulted in a theft of NEM cryptocurrency worth over $530 Million - the biggest cryptocurrency hack of all time! With bounty rewards and other such motivation, exchanges are now fighting back!