Ankr

Tencent Cloud signs multiple collaboration agreements with blockchain firms

The Chinese internet giant is launching new Web 3.0 solutions including a Metaverse-in-a-Box product and blockchain API services.

Tencent Cloud has concluded multiple agreements with blockchain firms to support the active development of the Web3 ecosystem, the cloud computing branch of Chinese internet giant Tencent announced in a Feb. 22 press release.

First, Tencent Cloud signed a memorandum of cooperation with decentralized blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr to jointly develop a series of blockchain API services for remote procedure call nodes. The new service will be deployed on Tencent Cloud’s infrastructure and will provide connections to mainstream blockchains building on Web 3.0 games and applications. 

Second, Tencent Cloud said that it reached strategic cooperation agreements with three other blockchain partners, Avalanche, Scroll, and Sui, to accelerate the adoption of Web3 applications. The cooperation between Tencent Cloud and Avalanche will provide developers with efficient and fast node settings. With the help of Tencent Cloud’s infrastructure footprint, the cooperation between Tencent Cloud and Scroll will assist developers with building practical projects on Scroll and expand access to non-blockchain enterprises.

Finally, the cooperation between Tencent Cloud and Sui will provide developers with cloud game development tools and professional support to improve the on-chain game experiences.

The company also introduced a new Tencent Cloud metaverse-in-a-box product for Web3 developers that fully integrates a wide range of infrastructure, high-performance products, out-of-the-box software development kits, and low-code solutions for use in games and media entertainment. Poshu Yeung, a senior vice president at Tencent Cloud International, stated:

“With a transparent digital future ahead, Tencent cloud is prepared to, through its accumulated experience in the field of games, audio, and video, provide strong technical support for Web3. Tencent Cloud will cooperate with industry partners to offer more immersive experiences and cultivate the cultivate Web3 ecosystem.”

Tencent’s upcoming metaverse-in-a-box product. Source: Tencent Cloud

Ankr partners with Microsoft to offer enterprise node services

The partnership will offer low-latency blockchain connections for Web3 projects, enabling developers to focus time on scaling their applications.

Microsoft has partnered with decentralized blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr to provide a novel node hosting service on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. In addition, the partnership will see an integration of technology from both companies, pairing Ankr’s blockchain infrastructure with Microsoft’s cloud solutions.

Per Ankr, the enterprise node deployment service will offer low-latency blockchain connections for Web3 projects so that developers can instead spend their time scaling their applications. The service relays transactions, deploys smart contracts and can read or write blockchain data.

By upgrading its load balancer to use Azure-based routing solutions, Ankr said the firm would be able to further scale its transactions processes by efficiently routing Remote Procedure Call requests to the best-suited nodes. With the technological integration, clients will be able to manage node hosting solutions with the choice of custom specifications for memory, bandwidth and global location for blockchain nodes. Chandler Song, co-founder and CEO of Ankr, commented on the development:

“The partnership, while an incredible milestone for Ankr, is also a key indicator of how far the decentralized web has come in integrating with the crucial players in every layer of web systems. The end result will be an era of extremely prolific building for blockchain-based applications from new Web3 projects as well as large enterprises entering the space.”

Rashmi Misra, Microsoft’s general manager of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, stated, “Many developers and organizations are exploring how Web3 can help solve real-world business challenges, and our partnership with Ankr will enable them to access blockchain data in a reliable, scalable, and secure way.”

Cointelegraph previously reported on May 14, 2021, that Microsoft shut down its Azure Blockchain Service with no official explanation. On Dec. 15, 2022, the American technology giant banned cryptocurrency mining on its cloud services, citing the need to protect its online services from risks such as cyber fraud, attacks and unauthorized access to customer resources. 

Ankr deploys $15M to make users whole as Helio stablecoin recovers after exploit

Helio Protocol had a total value locked of approximately $90 million before the incident.

Stablecoin protocol Helio, which issues the U.S. dollar-pegged HAY stablecoin, said in a Dec. 7 tweet that it has bought back $3 million worth of bad debt in HAY thus far in the open market. The day prior, blockchain infrastructure platform Ankr stated it would allocate $15 million to buy back the bad debt resulting from its recent exploit and the resultant overcirculation of HAY. 

A series of seemingly unrelated incidents occurred on Dec. 2 when a hacker manipulated vulnerabilities in Ankr’s smart contract code and compromised private keys after a technical upgrade. As a result, the hacker minted 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc), which was pegged to BNB (BNB), and dumped them, with the price of aBNBc plunging to less than $2 from around $300.

However, a trader then took advantage of an alleged hard-coding of pegged prices between aBNBc and BNB on Helio Protocol. The trader bought 183,885 aBNBc with only 10 BNB and used it as collateral to borrow 16 million HAY, which was then swapped for 15.5 million Binance USD (BUSD), earning a 5,209x profit from their original capital.

After the exploit, HAY lost its peg and fell to as low as $0.20 per coin before recovering most of its losses to trade at $0.96 at the time of publication. Immediately after the incident, the Helio team stated that it would be repurchasing the excess HAY and sending it to a burn address. Originally, users were able to mint HAY by depositing BNB as collateral at a ratio of 152%. The protocol had a total value locked of around $90 million before the incident.

Breaking: Ankr confirms exploit, asks for immediate trading halt

The decentralized-finance protocol said it is working with exchanges to immediately halt trading of its BNB staking rewards token, aBNBc.

BNB Chain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr has confirmed it has been hit by a multi-million dollar exploit on Dec. 1.

The attack appeared to be first discovered by on-chain security analyst PeckShield at approximately 12:35 am UTC on Dec. 2. 

Within an hour of the attack, Ankr confirmed on Twitter that the aBNB token has been exploited and that they’re working with exchanges to immediately halt trading of the compromised token.

The attacker was purportedly able to mint 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc), a reward-bearing token for BNB staked on the protocol.

According to a Twitter post from on-chain analysis firm Lookonchain, the exploiter has since used services such as Uniswap, Tornado Cash, and various bridges to swap and obfuscate the funds in order to gain around $5 million worth of USD Coin (USDC).

It also added in a following post that “all underlying assets on Ankr Staking are safe at this time, and all infrastructure services are unaffected.”

In comments to Cointelegraph about the attack, blockchain security firm Beosin suggested the exploit was likely the result of vulnerabilities in the smart contract code combined with compromised private keys, which may have come from a technical upgrade by the Ankr team about 12 hours ago.

Beosin also noted that the mass minting episode caused the price of aBNBc to fall 99.5% from $303.89 to $1.53 in a matter of hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

“It is possible that the deployer’s private key was exposed in this upgrade, leading to an attacker using deployer privileges to modify the contract,” a Beosin spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

In a Dec. 2 Twitter post, crypto exchange Binance also confirmed its team is engaged with relevant parties to investigate the matter further, adding that Binance’s user funds are not at risk.

Cointelegraph contacted Ankr when the exploit was first discovered but did not receive an immediate response.

Ankr confirms exploit, asks for immediate trading halt

The decentralized-finance protocol said it is working with exchanges to immediately halt trading of its BNB staking rewards token, aBNBc.

BNB Chain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr has confirmed it has been hit by a multi-million dollar exploit on Dec. 1.

The attack appeared to be first discovered by on-chain security analyst PeckShield at approximately 12:35 am UTC on Dec. 2. 

Within an hour of the attack, Ankr confirmed on Twitter that the aBNB token has been exploited and that it’s working with exchanges to immediately halt trading of the compromised token.

The attacker was purportedly able to mint 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc), a reward-bearing token for BNB (BNB) staked on the protocol.

According to a Twitter post from on-chain analysis firm Lookonchain, the exploiter has since used services such as Uniswap, Tornado Cash, and various bridges to swap and obfuscate the funds in order to gain around $5 million worth of USD Coin (USDC).

It also added in a following post that “all underlying assets on Ankr Staking are safe at this time, and all infrastructure services are unaffected.”

In comments to Cointelegraph about the attack, blockchain security firm Beosin suggested the exploit was likely the result of vulnerabilities in the smart contract code combined with compromised private keys, which may have come from a technical upgrade by the Ankr team about 12 hours ago.

Beosin also noted that the mass minting episode caused the price of aBNBc to fall 99.5% from $303.89 to $1.53 in a matter of hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

“It is possible that the deployer’s private key was exposed in this upgrade, leading to an attacker using deployer privileges to modify the contract,” a Beosin spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

In a Dec. 2 Twitter post, crypto exchange Binance confirmed its team is engaged with relevant parties to investigate the matter further, adding that Binance’s user funds are not at risk. The BNB Chain Twitter page also stated that the exploiter’s wallet address has been blacklisted.

Cointelegraph contacted Ankr when the exploit was first discovered but did not receive an immediate response.

Update 4:30am UTC Dec. 2: Added in an official statement from Ankr comments from Beosin.

Update 5:30am UTC Dec. 2: Added a statement from Binance’s BNB Chain Twitter account.