Zach Pandl highlighted institutional custody safeguards as crypto markets recovered some losses following the record $6.3 billion Binance hack. Binance’s $6.3 billion hack could temporarily hurt confidence in crypto markets but would ultimately lead to stronger security practices across exchanges, according to Grayscale. “It also underscores the importance of institutional custody, such as offered by US-based crypto [exchange-traded products],” said Grayscale’s head of research, Zach Pandl, in a Tuesday report. “These vehicles hold their assets at state-chartered banks and qualified custodians, typically offering offline storage, multi-signature wallets, SOC attestations and insurance policies,” he added.
The Binance attackers moved most of the stolen SOL and continued laundering funds through THORChain after the protocol resumed swaps. The attackers behind the $6.3 billion Binance hack have moved about 81% of the stolen Solana (SOL) as they continue laundering assets through the cross-chain swap protocol THORChain. Wallets grouped under the Binance hacker entity held 182,443 SOL (worth $16.9 million), or roughly 18.8% of the total 970,522 SOL stolen during the exploit, according to blockchain data platform Arkham. Lookonchain reported on Wednesday that the attackers split SOL across multiple wallets, selling it for USDC, bridging to Ethereum to buy Ether, and ultimately swapping ETH for Bitcoin (BTC) via THORChain.
Hackers exploited compromised employee computers and stolen credentials to breach Binance’s wallet infrastructure, according to the exchange’s investigation. A coding assignment from a prospective employer seemed like an ordinary part of a job interview. Instead, it was one step in a months-long cyberattack that ended with $6.3 billion stolen from Binance, raising questions about how exchanges protect themselves against threats that target their employees. The attack was part of a coordinated campaign that exploited both human vulnerabilities and internal security systems, according to a postmortem released by Binance on Tuesday. The exchange’s findings detailed how hackers gradually gained access to its wallet infrastructure before the Oct. 29 theft. According to Binance’s security report…
Binance led exchanges in 24-hour net inflows, reversing Monday’s heavy outflows as it restored access to funds after its $6.3 billion hack. Binance recorded $2.3 billion in net inflows over the past 24 hours as it expanded withdrawals following last week’s $6.3 billion hack. The exchange led centralized exchanges tracked by DefiLlama in 24-hour net inflows. Bitfinex recorded about $280 million and Bitget about $127 million over the same period. “By 03:00 UTC, we are seeing hourly deposits exceed withdrawals, reflecting improving user activity and stabilizing flows,” Binance said Tuesday on X.
The exchange says additional assets will become available for withdrawal from 04:00 UTC on Tuesday as security checks are completed, following an initial reopening on Sunday. Binance plans to begin a second phase of cryptocurrency withdrawals on Tuesday, as data shows withdrawal volumes have started to stabilize following last week’s $6.3 billion hack. Withdrawals for additional assets are scheduled to resume progressively from 04:00 UTC on Tuesday, according to Binance’s latest recovery notice. The rollout follows an initial reopening on Nov. 1. “Like phase one, reopening will roll out progressively across the assets as security and readiness checks are completed,” said Binance.
South Korean crypto exchanges are already required to hold at least 80% of customer crypto in cold wallets, but the regulator is urging more. South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has urged domestic crypto exchanges to increase the proportion of assets held in cold wallets after the $6.3 billion attack on Binance last week. In a statement Monday, the FSC said it held an emergency meeting with the Financial Supervisory Service, the Financial Security Institute, the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) and major crypto service providers to review the impact of the Binance hack on South Korea’s crypto market and review exchanges’ security measures. The FSC said it reviewed exchanges’ IT access controls, wallet withdrawal approval and signing procedures, and administrator privileges.…
Pyongyang has pushed back against the FBI’s attribution of the Binance attack, with Kim Yo Jong calling the US allegations politically motivated. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied North Korea’s involvement in the $6.3 billion Binance hack and appeared to suggest, without evidence, that the US could have been behind the theft. In a statement released via the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday, Kim rejected the FBI’s attribution of the attack to a North Korean-backed hacking group. “The FBI is trying to brand the DPRK as a ‘cyber criminal state’, claiming that it obtained information that a hacking organization ‘supported’ by the DPRK was involved in the incident,” said Kim. “But the US assertion is an absurd rhetoric and nothing new.”
Binance’s SAFU Bitcoin wallet now holds about 7,500 BTC after a 7,499 BTC transfer linked to the hack, with no timeline for restoring the $1 billion fund. Binance’s publicly disclosed emergency Bitcoin wallet held roughly half its previous balance on Monday after the exchange tapped its user protection fund to cover losses from Thursday’s $6.3 billion hack. The exchange confirmed a transfer of 7,499 Bitcoin (BTC) on Saturday, linking it to the partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU). As of Monday, the wallet held about 7,500 BTC, worth $583 million, down from about 15,000 BTC before the transfer.
Crypto exchange Gate said it froze two linked accounts as US investigators urged platforms to block transactions tied to the $6.3 billion theft. The hackers behind Binance’s $6.3 billion theft have begun converting stolen Solana tokens into Bitcoin after largely emptying the wallets used to launder funds on Tron, according to blockchain investigators. Lookonchain reported Sunday that the hackers had moved 486,970 Solana (SOL) tokens, worth about $46.4 million, and were swapping them for Bitcoin (BTC) through Relay. The activity involves funds that escaped the freezes imposed after Thursday’s theft, the largest in cryptocurrency history. Industry partners, including Tether and Circle, froze about $3 billion in stolen assets, while investigator SomaXBT estimated the attackers still controlle…
OKX led cryptocurrency exchanges with $445 million in daily inflows, while Binance processed about $7 billion in net outflows. OKX recorded about $445 million in 24-hour net inflows, the largest among tracked crypto exchanges, while Binance continued to register outflows after reopening withdrawals following its $6.3 billion hack. Crypto exchange Bybit was in second place with $112 million in net inflows, followed by Gate with $91 million and Bitget with $54 million in 24-hour net inflows, according to DefiLlama. Binance recorded the biggest net outflows among tracked exchanges, with more than $7 billion, up from $5.8 billion earlier Monday. Binance said it began restoring withdrawals in phases at 6:00 a.m. UTC on Sunday.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs ended October with $515 million in net withdrawals, while Ether funds posted a record $1.61 billion in monthly outflows. Investors pulled $643 million from US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Friday, pushing October’s net flows into negative territory as crypto markets faced volatility following Binance’s $6.3 billion hack. Friday’s withdrawals snapped four consecutive days of inflows, leaving the funds with $515 million in net outflows for October, their first negative month since June, according to SoSoValue. The funds still attracted approximately $361 million in net inflows for the year through October. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led Friday’s outflows with $234 million, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $20…
THORChain node operators paused swaps involving assets on 10 networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron. THORChain halted swaps across multiple blockchains on Saturday after an Ethereum block reorganization exposed a refund bug, which may have inadvertently slowed the movement of funds stolen from Binance, according to Chainalysis. According to THORChain, the incident began at 11:34 UTC on Saturday, when a one-block reorganization on Ethereum removed a 10 ETH deposit that THORChain had already credited. When the swap failed to meet its price limit, THORChain issued a refund against funds the vault had never received. The sender’s actual deposit was also refunded, resulting in an extra 10 ETH payout, which then triggered an automatic pause. An Ethereum block reorganization, or…
The exchange says withdrawals surged after some services resumed but have since slowed, with the outflows representing a fraction of its roughly $171 billion in customer assets. Binance has recorded $5.8 billion in net outflows over the past 24 hours as customers withdraw funds following the exchange’s record $6.3 billion hack, according to data from DefiLlama. Binance said it began restoring withdrawals at 6:00 UTC on Sunday. By 3:30 UTC, it had processed $4.6 billion in withdrawals against $1 billion in deposits, resulting in net outflows of $3.6 billion. Separate data from DefiLlama showed $5.8 billion in net outflows over the preceding 24 hours, as funds continued leaving the exchange after its initial update.
Binance has reopened withdrawals following the world’s biggest ever hack, and THORChain co-founder argues it should not halt the protocol to comply with FBI demands. Binance has reopened withdrawals for 15 blockchain networks, after $6.3 billion was stolen by North Korean hackers from its hot wallets late last week. Binance said today it had processed around $4.65 billion in withdrawals after reopening and received $1 billion in deposits. Founder Changpeng Zhao said that in the first 12 hours there had only been a 2.1% net outflow and that “98% choose to stay!” DeFi Llama’s Binance wallet tracker shows $4.54 billion in outflows over 24 hours, however its figures may include internal transfers or movements into new hot wallets.
The crypto exchange said it has begun phased withdrawals after the record hack the FBI has blamed on North Korea. Binance said it has reopened its Bitcoin network in phase one of resuming withdrawals after a major hack of about $6.3 billion in funds. The crypto exchange had suspended user withdrawals after the attack on Thursday, which the FBI blamed on North Korean operatives. “First batch network now opened in phase one of withdrawals is $BTC bitcoin network,” Binance said on X.
US agency seeks private-sector help to block further money-laundering of stolen digital assets. The FBI said that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of about $6.3 billion in digital assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Thursday. The FBI said on Saturday in a news release that it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as “TraderTraitor,” which it has most recently observed converting stolen assets mostly into Ether (ETH). It expects these assets to be further converted, using DeFi and instant swap services, as the hackers move to more advanced laundering stages.
Less-liquid tokens make up the remaining shortfall as Binance continues buying replacement assets through market and over-the-counter trades. Binance said Saturday it had replenished 90% of the assets stolen in its $6.3 billion hack, up from 80% a day earlier, and remained on track to resume withdrawals Sunday. The exchange is using a combination of its corporate treasury, a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and a portion of its futures insurance fund, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “Binance will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not users,” the spokesperson said, adding that the insurance fund would remain above required risk management levels.
Strive CEO Matt Cole says the Binance hack has not changed his long-term case for Bitcoin, but cautions it is too early to call a market bottom. Bitcoin has held up better than expected following the $6.3 billion Binance hack, according to Strive CEO Matt Cole, who said the breach does not undermine the cryptocurrency’s long-term investment thesis. Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction on Friday, Cole said the breach had not changed his long-term investment case for Bitcoin. He compared the attack on Binance’s wallets to a bank robbery rather than a failure of Bitcoin’s network. Bitcoin traded near $77,400 at 4:00 pm on Saturday, about 4% below its price shortly before the attack began Thursday, according to CoinGecko data.
Some political and administration figures tried to make hay of the biggest-ever crypto heist. Soon after the $6.3 billion hack of Binance, the biggest in crypto history, some political and administration figures began offering opinions with a US election approaching on Nov. 3 and voting already having begun in many locations. President Donald Trump was asked at a news conference on Friday about the hack of Binance. “We don’t know. We’re looking at that, the hack with Binance. They’re saying they’re going to get it back, they’re saying they’re guaranteeing it,” he replied. The crypto exchange said in a post on X late Friday that it would cover any losses. “We want to be clear about our commitment: Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users.” It added that…
Attackers raced to convert stolen stablecoins into crypto that issuers could not freeze as industry players like Tether and Circle moved to immobilize billions of dollars in assets. Attackers behind Binance’s estimated $6.3 billion hack still control billions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrency despite efforts by token issuers to freeze the proceeds. The attack, the largest in crypto history, began at 8:04 pm UTC Thursday and the perpetrators, linked to the same North Korean hackers behind last month’s Bitget hack, immediately began converting assets. The game plan for the hackers was to convert the assets that could be frozen, like USDT and USDC, into ones that could not, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
