Token Plunges 99- Blockchain Platform Claiming to be Quantum-Resistant is Stolen

QANplatform, a quantum-resistant Layer 1 hybrid blockchain platform, announced in January 2022 that it had launched its test network (testnet): becoming the first Ethernet-compatible, quantum-resistant blockchain platform. However, on October 11, it was the target of a cross-chain bridge hack (bridge hack) attack that resulted in the theft of approximately $1.2 million worth of QANX tokens [1].

01Cross-chain bridge hack costs about $1.2 million

The QANplatform hack occurred on Tuesday morning local time and was initially discovered by blockchain security firm PerkShield. More than 1.4 billion QANX tokens were allegedly stolen initially, followed by additional small transactions to the same address, this time sending 28.6 million QANX, or about $20,500. The combined total is approximately $1.2 million.

Left: Tweets from Peckshield; Right: Announcement from QANplatform

Shortly after Peckshield broke the story, QANplatform itself issued an announcement asking people not to make any transactions with QANX.

A representative from Peckshield explained the attackers' steps: "The hackers extracted about 1.4 billion QANX from the addresses of token holders and exchanged them for about $3,090 in BNB (about $837,500 for the cryptocurrency of the exchange Binance ecosystem) and about $256 in Ether ETH ($328,000 million); the total amount was approximately $1.2 million."

Peckshield also confirmed that it did not investigate the theft through QANplatform.

02Refuting Rumors of Technical Breach, QANX Token Plunges 99%

QANplatform revealed that the investigation is ongoing and that transactions, deposits and withdrawals from the centralized exchange (CEX) have been suspended. qan further noted that it may take a snapshot of the blockchain prior to the hack and release airdrops to compensate affected users.

A cross-chain bridge is a tool designed to enable the transfer of tokens, smart contract instructions, assets or data between two blockchains. Due to incompatible blockchain assets, cross-chain bridges create synthetic derivatives that represent assets from another blockchain. The two blockchains may have different protocols, governance models, and rules, but the cross-chain bridge can connect them through secure interoperability; as a result, DeFi users can make small transfers faster through the cross-chain bridge without paying high transaction fees. After this attack, the QAN team refuted rumors that QAN smart contracts or core technology vulnerabilities led to exploits: the developers asserted that the hackers used a vulnerability that could run on multiple chains and projects in the DeFi ecosystem.

Shortly after the attack, QANX dropped 99% to $0.0004721 from a 24-hour high of $0.12.

03Anti-quantum may be premature

Since quantum computers have great potential to break current crypto systems, more and more blockchain platforms have started to attract more investors in recent years under the banner of anti-quantum. However, it has been proven that products based on anti-quantum algorithms are vulnerable in the face of classical methods of attack, so how can we guarantee that they will be able to defend against quantum computers in the future?

Before this attack on the so-called quantum-resistant blockchain, the algorithm SIKE, which entered the fourth round of the NIST quantum-resistant cryptography competition for evaluation, was also cracked twice in a row in just a few months, and by two different methods. These events suggest that more verification of the deployment of quantum-resistant ciphers is yet to come.

Reference links：

[1]https://finance.yahoo.com/news/quantum-resistant-blockchain-qanplatform-suffers-121549717.html

[2]https://medium.com/@CryptoSavingExpert/qanx-token-dumps-99-after-qanplatform-suffers-1m-bridge-hack-75fd56a83a8d