Today in Crypto: Lawmaker Says US Needs CBDC to Remain in ‘the game’; BitKeep Wallet to Reimburse Users in $1M Hack

Crypto wallet BitKeep has been hacked for more than $1 billion in BNB Chain and Polygon-based tokens on Tuesday (Oct. 18), a Coindesk report said.

The BitKeep Swap product said it was hacked early on Tuesday. The team said it had “managed to contain the emergency and stopped the hacker.” The Swap service had been paused as of the report to avoid further breaches.

BitKeep said it plans to roll out a compensation portal within three working days to let victims apply for a refund. The company said it was also talking to relevant security agencies to try and catch the attackers.

The attack is another in several of them that have taken place in October alone, which has become the worst month ever for crypto hacks in the digital assets’ history.

BitKeep supports tokens from over 30 blockchain networks including Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and BNB Chain, claiming to have over six million users.

In other crypto news, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) has said the U.S. should push development of a CBDC pilot to keep in the competitive player in digital assets, Coindesk wrote.

Speaking on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover,” he said the U.S. should keep working on a digital dollar so it could use them if the need arose.

“Why would you exit the game before you even know what the game is going to look like?” Himes said. “We could do the research. We could set up a pilot program for a CBDC.”

CBDCs are still a new form of money, but pilots have been going on in various countries, including Australia, Iran, Japan and Russia.

Himes said there was a possibility that a CBDC wouldn’t be adopted in the U.S., but he thought there was a case to be made for keeping up with the technological innovation and seeing where it goes.

Himes currently serves on the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy, and said he had some ideas for how a CBDC could be used — including making a CBDC platform for investors to build payment systems, remittances and businesses, which could help with private sector innovation.