BNB Chain announces hard fork after it was ‘most targeted’ in Q1 2023

• As part of the upgrade, enhancements will be pushed to make the cross-chain bridge more secure
• BNB Chain was the most targeted chain in Q1 2023 with 33 incidents of hacks and exploits

The BNB Smart Chain mainnet will undergo a scheduled hard fork named ‘Planck’ on 12 April, according to a blog post. The upgrade is anticipated to improve the security and stability of the network.

Read Binance Coin [BNB] Price Prediction 2023-24

In order to continue normal operations, the upgrade requires full-node operators to switch their software version to  v1.1.21 before 12 April.

Key security enhancements

The cross-chain bridge between the Beacon Chain and the Smart Chain will become stronger by pushing several security enhancements as part of the upgrade. Some of these features include enabling validators to pause cross-chain channels, automatic pausing in case of forged proof detection, and applying timer lock for large cross-chain transfers.

The update comes at a time when the BNB Chain has gained notoriety for a rising number of cross-bridge hacks. It was at the center of a sensational $570 million hack in October last year. Attackers found a vulnerability in the cross-chain bridge and drained out about 2 million BNB tokens. Following the hack, BNB Chain had to perform an emergency hard fork to fix the exploit.

A bad start to 2023

As per a report by ImmuneFi, a Web3 bug bounty platform, BNB Chain was the most targeted chain in Q1 2023 with 33 incidents of hacks and exploits.

The report found that about 73.3% of total rug pulls in Q1 2023 happened on BNB Chain. A rug pull is a scam where a team hypes a project to attract investor money only to abandon it later, taking investors’ assets with them.

The Tech Lead of the triaging team at ImmuneFi Adrian Hetman noted,

“BNB Chain has a security-first approach and attracts many users looking for a quick way to earn money. That’s why we continue to see the biggest number of exploits and rug pulls in this ecosystem.”

How much are 1,10,100 BNBs worth today?

Additionally, Binance has been grappling with a lot of regulatory concerns of late. Its native token BNB was valued at $313.71 at press time, down 0.62% in the last 24 hours.

According to Santiment, weighted sentiment was trending south in the negative zone for most of March. One of the reasons could be declining transaction volume in profit, something which has deterred investors from betting big on the exchange token.

Source: Santiment