Bancor Hack During ICO

By Bitcoin Chaser
Published Jun 12th, 2017
Bancor Hack During ICO

The Bancor ICO was one of the most widely followed crowdfunding events in cryptocurrency markets over the last few weeks. Once the countdown clock hit 0 and the ICO started, the sheer amount of transactions seemed to overwhelm Bancor. There were widespread reports of incomplete transactions, even when investors followed all the recommendations – 200,000 gas and 50 Gwei. About 42 into the ICO, Bancor’s Twitter account released a statement claiming massive attacks on the network. The exact details of this “Bancor hack” are still missing.

Bancor Hack Forces ICO Extension

Nevertheless, this “Bancor hack” forced the project developers to extend the ICO minimum funding limit from 1 hour to 3. Bancor developers also rushed to reassure potential investors on Twitter, telling them they will get in. It is difficult to establish if Bancor delivered on their pledge to let everyone in before the ICO was over.

Bancor Hack Tweet
This is the tweet that pointed to an attack. Many transactions were pending for quite a long time during the ICO. More details will surely emerge about this “Bancor hack”. Source: Bancor Official Twitter account.

Beyond the Bancor Hack

Now that the ICO is over, details about this “Bancor Hack” might start trickling in. However, there are still people who believe that there was no attack, but rather a simple transaction bottleneck. Others assert that the “Bancor hack” was self-inflicted to create an excuse to extend the minimum funding time for the Bancor ICO from 1 hour to 3 hours. It is important to point out that neither theory has been proven.

Bancor ICO Pending Transactions
This Etherscan screen shot shows how many transactions to participate in the Bancor ICO were pending. The 0xbbc79794599b… account is the Bancor ICO wallet.

Until Bancor confirms what happened, it would be better to move beyond the “Bancor hack” reports and focus on the latest ICO updates:

  • The ICO is now closed. It lasted approximately 3 hours, like the developers promised after the extension.
  • According to the latest update on Bancor’s official website, Bancor raised 396,720 ETH.
  • Etherscan has the total amount raised at $142,927,282.65 (assuming ETH is $360.27 USD).
  • Our staff could not get hold of the 80% financing threshold mark at which Bancor promised to divulge what the token cap was.
  • Bancor issued 396.7 Million tokens according to its official website.

Bancor ICO Successful?

From the information available, it is possible to infer that the Bancor ICO was indeed successful. More information about the “Bancor hack” should become available soon. Our analysts will update this story as soon as they get more information about the attack. In the meantime, our staff is following Bancor’s twitter feed closely for more official updates on the attacks. Our analysts will also follow the token markets during the following days and weeks to keep you updated on how the Bancor token is doing.