Binance Recovers 90% of $6.3 Billion in Stolen Crypto Assets
Translated & summarized from Ice by baba
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has recovered 90% of the $6.3 billion in assets stolen in a major cyberattack, with plans to resume withdrawals on Sunday. The breach, suspected to have originated from a compromised engineer's laptop, led to the freezing of user funds. Israeli firm Tactona has $2.5 million frozen, with $1.5 million belonging to the company. Binance is repurchasing assets to cover user balances and has committed that users will not incur losses.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Binance recovered 90% of $6.3 billion in crypto assets stolen in a massive cyberattack.
- The exchange plans to resume withdrawals on Sunday after halting them due to the breach.
- Approximately $2.5 million belonging to Israeli firm Tactona remains frozen on Binance.
- The attack is suspected to have originated from a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop.
- Binance committed that users will not bear the financial losses from the incident.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced it has recovered approximately 90% of the crypto assets stolen in a massive cyberattack, an increase from the 80% reported just a day prior. The exchange is still planning to resume withdrawals on Sunday, a move anticipated by some in Israel. Approximately $2.5 million linked to the Israeli crypto firm Tactona, its chairman, and a trader acting on its behalf, remain frozen on Binance after the platform halted withdrawals. Of this amount, about $1.5 million belongs to Tactona itself, with an additional $1 million belonging to the chairman and the trader. It is not yet confirmed if these specific funds are available for withdrawal, as Binance's announcement pertains to the planned resumption of services.
The incident began when Binance detected unusually large, unauthorized withdrawals totaling an estimated $6.3 billion in crypto assets. Initial investigations suggest a DevOps engineer's laptop was compromised, granting the attacker access to execute the transactions. Binance stated there was no evidence that private wallet keys were leaked. Following the breach, Binance halted withdrawals and initiated efforts to locate and freeze the stolen assets. Some funds were frozen, and the company began repurchasing assets to cover user balances.
The latest update indicates rapid progress, with coverage of stolen assets rising to 90%. Binance claims 100% recovery for the ten most affected assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, BNB, Solana, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD, and ZEC. The remaining assets to be recovered are primarily those with lower liquidity, which Binance explained are harder to repurchase quickly in large quantities without impacting the market. These repurchases are being conducted on the market and through over-the-counter (OTC) deals. Binance is funding the recovery using its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), its futures contracts insurance fund, and corporate treasury funds. The exchange committed that users would not bear the losses from the breach.
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