As more news regarding the recent Cryptopia hack peters out, one of the world’s largest exchanges, Binance, has decided to freeze funds coming in from the former.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that the act of sending stolen funds to the exchange was a risky manoeuver:
Just checked, we were able to freeze some of the funds. I don't understand why the hackers keep sending to Binance. Social media will be pretty fast to report it, and we will freeze it. It's a high risk maneuver for them. https://t.co/i0PeahLzic
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 16, 2019
Zhao is correct in that hackers simply stand to lose money from the process.
New Zealand police are officially looking into the matter, but there have been no updates from their end.
The Cryptopia hack, the first of 2019, resulted in over $3 million worth of cryptocurrency being stolen. Exchange officials have consulted the authorities, but Cryptopia has offered few details on what actually transpired. There is no evidence as to who the culprit is.
We cannot comment as this matter is now in the hands of the appropriate authorities. We will update you as soon as we can.https://t.co/9uMiKQwb6u
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) January 15, 2019
While Cryptopia is not the most popular exchange, attacks on smaller exchanges still have severe consequences. Increasingly, experts and enthusiastic investors are opting for cold storage devices for their crypto.
The market does not seem to have been affected to any great degree, however.
2019 will see developments that might mitigate this sort of attack: decentralized exchanges are being refined and cold storage solutions are becoming more accessible.
