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Grand Theft Crypto: Hackers steal the equivalent of over US$40 million from Binance

Visual representation of Bitcoin, US$40 million Binance theft May 2019 (Source: Getty Images)
Visual representation of Bitcoin (Source: Getty Images)
Although the security breach that has just been discovered by Binance impacted the BTC hot wallet only — which contained only about 2 percent of the total BTC holdings of the exchange — the hackers managed to withdraw 7,000 BTC in a single transaction. Fortunately, Binance will cover this incident in full and no user funds will be affected.

Although holding cryptocurrency is supposed to be safe, sometimes large-scale thefts take place and the end users can only hope that the big entities in charge can cover their losses. The latest incident that affected Binance involves — as discovered by now, but the full security review will take one week and the amount might increase — over US$40 million worth of cryptocurrency.

According to Binance, "Hackers were able to obtain a large number of user API keys, 2FA codes, and potentially other info. The hackers used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks." For now, there is a single transaction connected to the attack, but it involves no less than 7,000 BTC. This transaction targeted the BTC hot wallet only. This wallet contained about 2 percent of the total BTC holdings Binance had at the time of the attack and no other wallets have been affected.

Once the aforementioned transaction has been executed, various alarms were triggered and Binance stopped all withdrawals immediately. Binance will use the SAFU fund to cover the incident, so no users funds will be affected. However, deposits and withdrawals will remain suspended during the thorough security review that is currently being conducted and is expected to last one week. 

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2019 05 > Grand Theft Crypto: Hackers steal the equivalent of over US$40 million from Binance
Codrut Nistor, 2019-05- 8 (Update: 2019-05- 8)