Binance exchange says it will cover customer losses as it scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack described as the biggest heist in history, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit.
Binance said it would cover all customer losses as it froze $3bn of the affected assets.
Analysts said the exchange had been subjected to an unprecedented attack with “never-seen-before” laundering patterns as the hackers made off with assets worth billions of dollars.
They’re going to cover $6.3b? They have enough cash or cryptocurrency on hand for that?
Also, what is NK even planning on doing with it? You can’t eat it. Russia wants you to use rubles, China wants you to use RMB. If you trade it for regular currency, you’ll be devaluing it. Is there some international black market that will take it?
If you stole it it’s not like devaluing it means much to you lol
Half of that was in stablecoins that were frozen, so they ‘only’ need to recover around 3b.
“Under custody” doesn’t mean unrestricted and capable of being transferred freely, or even ownership. The owner of a valet parking garage might have millions of dollars worth of cars inside, but he can’t just start using that value to pay off his debts, even if he does have the keys to the cars inside.
Fair, but this wouldn’t be the first time depositors took a haircut to cover an exchange, and losing 4% of one’s money is already a daily occurrence in crypto.