According to the Helium Foundation, “We can confirm that this is not a chain issue, and that this issue is isolated to Binance. To our knowledge, no other exchanges or third-parties have been affected. We advise token holders to suspend HNT and MOBILE deposits on Binance until a comprehensive situation update is provided.”
Binance misallocated over 4.8M HNT tokens (worth $20M) due to a glitch that caused the platform to count HNT and MOBILE tokens as one.
The Helium Network features two types of tokens: HNT and MOBILE. The native HNT token is used to reward community-run hotspots whenever they transfer connection data using the Proof-of-Coverage mechanism. Meanwhile, MOBILE tokens are paid out for mining the 5G HOTSPOT on Helium’s ecosystem.
The MOBILE token does not have a quotable price as it lacks a liquid market, while the HNT token is worth $4.32, up by roughly 5.9% within the last 24 hours.
Due to an accounting-related bug, Binance counted the two tokens as one and accidentally distributed HNT tokens to users who deposited MOBILE tokens in their accounts.
After receiving an equivalent amount of HNT coins, many users sold them for a hefty profit. The number of misallocated HNT tokens is estimated to be 4.8M, worth approximately $20M.
The crypto exchange has patched the vulnerability and closed $HNT withdrawals, with the Helium Foundation claiming Binance was the only platform affected by this bug.
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