Cryptoupdated 1h ago2 min read
Binance Attempts To Recover $6.3 Billion Stolen In Hack After Freezing Half The Funds
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Binance froze about $3 billion of stolen assets following the breach. Binance suspended all withdrawals across its ecosystem after the hack.
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Binance freezes, traces, recovers
Binance said it was attempting to recover $6.3bn stolen in a hack after it froze around half of the funds accessed in what it called a "complex" attack. Binance said $3bn of its stolen digital assets had been secured, while it told users "your money is safe, and we're covering every loss" as it coordinated with the FBI.
The US Secret Service said it was "working around the clock" "to identify, freeze, trace, and recover" stolen funds, and it added it would "identify the cyber criminals responsible and bring them to justice". Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the incident was not carried out by one person and described how hackers used "a self-destruct mechanism that destroyed tooling and traces as they went, making it more difficult for us to trace and investigate."
Who did it, what was frozen
TRM Labs linked the hack to a North Korean unit known as TraderTraitor, and it said it had "high confidence" in its assessment based on features of the hack. TRM Labs said the attacker withdrew approximately $6.36 billion from Binance wallets across ten blockchains, most of it in approximately 20 minutes, and it attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, North Korea's elite hacking unit.
Binance said it allocated more than $6.34 billion of the company's own funds to cover losses for users affected by the security incident, while stating it managed to freeze assets worth $3 billion. Binance said about $5 billion of the allocations were already available in the form of the very digital currencies affected, and it said it would purchase the remaining amounts through over-the-counter (OTC) markets and direct market purchases.
Market impact and next steps
Binance suspended all withdrawals after the hack, and it later said deposits remained unaffected while withdrawals would gradually resume within 48 hours of its last update. Binance said it was working around the clock and would share a full analysis once the investigation concludes, while it also said it continues to coordinate with law enforcement agencies, the issuers of the digital currencies, blockchain analytics firms, and industry partners.
“They’re gone for good, and the stolen Bitcoins are all in the possession of the hackers.”
Bobby Lee, founder of Ballet Global Inc., said recovering stolen Bitcoin would likely be impossible and told Bloomberg TV, "They’re gone for good, and the stolen Bitcoins are all in the possession of the hackers." Binance estimated the heist affected assets valued at $6.3 billion, and it said about $3 billion in assets have been frozen so far as it faced lengthy procedures to collaborate with law enforcement to investigate and formally claim the frozen assets.