In what is one of the most high-profile – if not the largest in terms of funds stolen – hacks in recent times, Binance has disclosed that hackers have breached the exchange and stolen approximately $40 million, or 7000 Bitcoin (BTC). Binance has said that it possible that more accounts have been compromised, and that it is looking into the scope of the breach.
Not the best of days, but we will stay transparent. Thank you for your support!https://t.co/Y1CQOatEpi
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) May 7, 2019
Binance itself released an update on their blog, saying that hackers were able to withdraw the entire sum of 7000 btc in one transaction.
Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted about the hack yesterday, saying that Binance will continue to remain transparent about the whole situation. It also states that only Binance’s BTC hot wallet has been affected. The post reads,
The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time. The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks. It was unfortunate that we were not able to block this withdrawal before it was executed. Once executed, the withdrawal triggered various alarms in our system. We stopped all withdrawals immediately after that.
As a part of the follow-up process, Binance is conducting a security review that they expect to take a week – and all deposits and withdrawals will be suspended during this time. Trading, however, is still open.
Crypto market prices, which are tantalizingly close to reaching the $6000 mark, have dropped since the news was announced.
