Crypto exchange Binance says hackers stole $40m of bitcoin
The exchange said 7,000 digital tokens were siphoned off in single transaction
Binance, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, said hackers had stolen about $40m worth of bitcoin from its platform.
The exchange revealed in a blog post on Wednesday morning Asia time that 7,000 digital tokens were siphoned off in single transaction in a “large scale security breach”. The culprits used a variety of advanced hacking methods including phishing and viruses to access the exchange’s “hot wallet”, which holds about 2 per cent of Binance’s total assets.
“The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time,” Zhao Zhangpeng, the company’s chief executive said in the post.
“The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks.”
Binance depositors will be relieved to hear they won’t be left out of pocket. The exchange said it plans to compensate victims via cash held in an emergency fund.
Binance said it would now conduct a large-scale review of its security protocols and did not rule out the possibility of unearthing further breaches. Crypto traders won’t be able to make withdrawals and deposits for the next week while the review takes place, but day-to-day trading will not be impacted.
The incident is not the first time that Binance, like a number of big crypto exchanges, has been targeted by cyber thieves.
Bitcoin prices were steady on Wednesday at $5,782, according Reuters data based on the Bitstamp exchange. Still, the price of the digital token has surged more than 80 per cent since December.