Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has reported a major security incident affecting digital assets worth approximately 6.3 billion dollars. The company has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrencies, and has also announced that it is freezing approximately $3 billion.
- The Binance exchange suffered a major security incident affecting assets worth $6.3 billion.
- The breach is believed to have been caused by the compromise of a laptop belonging to one of the company’s engineers.
- Around $3 billion in assets have been frozen. The fate of the remaining funds is currently being clarified.
- Binance has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrencies.
How hackers might have breached Binance
According to the findings of the preliminary investigation, the attackers may have gained access to the exchange’s internal infrastructure via a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer.
This enabled the attackers to gain access to one of the system’s service containers and carry out unauthorised transactions to withdraw cryptocurrencies.
The company emphasised that it has not yet found any evidence of a leak of private keys from crypto wallets.
The exact mechanism of the attack is still being established. Binance promised to publish a detailed technical report once the investigation had been completed.
How much money did Binance lose?
According to the exchange’s preliminary estimate, the total the scale of the incident amounts to around 6.3 billion dollars.
Thanks to collaboration with blockchain companies and stablecoin issuers, it has been possible to freeze approximately $3 billion in assets.
In particular, Tether has frozen around 1.57 billion dollars in USDT, whilst Circle has frozen over 800 million dollars in USDC. The fate of the remaining assets, totalling approximately 3.3 billion dollars, remains unknown.
If the loss of all the assets in question is confirmed, the incident could become the biggest hack in the history of the cryptocurrency market.
Binance has suspended withdrawals: what will happen to users’ assets?
Following the discovery of unauthorised transactions, the exchange temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals whilst security checks were carried out.
The company has also revoked the compromised transaction authorisations and has involved the police in the search for the perpetrators.
Binance has assured users that their funds are safe and that any losses will be covered by the SAFU insurance fund and the company’s own reserves.
Once the audits have been completed, the exchange plans to publish an updated Proof of Reserves report, which will show the collateral backing client assets.
Bitcoin plummeted following reports of a hack
News of the major incident caused a fall the cryptocurrency market.
According to Reuters, on the morning of 30 October, the price of Bitcoin fell by more than 3%, dropping to approximately $76,368 — the lowest level in six weeks.
Ethereum fell to $2,178, whilst the BNB token lost around 5% of its value over the past 24 hours.
In the wake of the incident, analysts have warned of a possible rise in investor mistrust of centralised cryptocurrency exchanges.
Binance continues to track the movement of assets linked to the attack and is working with law enforcement agencies to identify the attackers.
