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Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance

Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance

Tiberium

Comments (453)

  • scrlk
    Their insurance fund (SAFU) is completely wiped out, it's only $1 billion in BTC: https://www.binance.com/en/academy/glossary/secure-asset-fun...The name of the fund was originally inspired by this meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DelF6zEHXpEFWIW, at the end of every crypto bear market, a CEX usually blows up (eg FTX)...
  • Tiberium
    About $2.4 billion out of this is already frozen by Circle and Tether. Some of the big ones:- 971.15M USDT (Ethereum): https://etherscan.io/tx/0x7baba482077843514d9c72bac0110ba091...- 823M USDC (Ethereum): https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc954c86f118e8e410e6a3eb9e3b38ff4a9...- 312.73M USDT (Tron): https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/71b0ec0fe873fe820c37cc3ec...- 175M USDT (Ethereum): https://etherscan.io/tx/0x0c07a5e428ce233a3bcb40f257ad899594...
  • glimshe
    At least they are safe from governments and their "fiat money"!
  • yakkomajuri
    I think we can probably declare crypto as failed now.Note that I was one of the folks early on that bought into the idea (but not as much of the coins sadly) and I still think the Bitcoin white paper is a beautiful intellectual exploration (as is the concept of blockchains).But the centralized entry and exit points in practice mean all the theoretical benefits aren't really in play.
  • ChoosesBarbecue
    Molly White (she runs web3isgoinggreat) seems to think this is real [0][0]: https://bsky.app/profile/molly.wiki/post/3mz27m5slcc2o
  • callamdelaney
    For context, that’s about 10 months of fees for Binance, depending on how much of the volume they trade are discounted and considering current average volumes.
  • 1a527dd5
  • privacyishuman
    I expect Monero to be a good investment going into this LLM era.It always pumps after hacks when they swap to clean it. But it is also just the only crypto that makes sense to be used by regular people.
  • socketcluster
    IMO, we'll need to rebuild all of crypto and all software from scratch using a minimalist approach. Minimize the amount of code, with proper modularization where each module has clear responsibilities and fully self-contained attack surface and exposes a well-defined set of features.
  • dickfickling
    So, what's the most likely outcome here? Maybe Circle/Tether/etc freeze some or most of it, but say the hacker gets a billion dollars. Are they able to launder it thoroughly enough that they can eventually turn it into fiat and live like a king?
  • darkwi11ow
    The hack is publicized for at least a hour, but from reporting I saw they still continue to drain funds as for now. I wonder why large CEX do not have any safety measures for this kind of hacks, they could withdraw everything to newly generated wallets and minimize damage that way. It is certainly not the first time CEX wallets get hacked.
  • layerv-ai-qurl
    This is a really insane hack in comparison to the other ones we've seen. Genuinely Binance was so big that this is a real big wtf moment for crypto. If they can get hacked then what about all the other exchanges?!
  • tgtweak
    CZ saying it is confirmed, and that he expects accountholders to be made fully whole... I guess you can do that when 2.8BN is frozen by centralized stablecoins.[1] https://x.com/CZ_BINANCE/STATUS/2115915423174853077
  • thedangler
    Confused how this can’t just be tracked. Pretty hard to hide billions in bitcoin when most off-ramps need KYK?What am I missing ?
  • le-mark
    I’ve been waiting for this. Given llm aptitude for offensive security hacks it was just a matter of time. I wager most alt coins are compromised at this point.
  • ndom91
    Looks like they're still actively swapping out of USDT.. so much for freezing those.
  • Vaushite
    Glad I moved my money out a while ago. And not onto BSC.
  • vldszn
    Polymarket also reported a security incident: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50295883
  • at1as
    I think it's been clear for a while now that if you intend to hold crypto, you should probably do it at the biggest, most boring, most regulated institution you can find.Same goes with startup banks - if you exceed FDIC limits, make sure the difference is in a large institutional bank. Nearly learned this one the hard way.Trying to save a few basis points in txn fees in very volatile industries comes at a huge risk premium
  • usefulcat
    A long time ago (maybe 2008-ish?) I saw a video called “Money is Debt”. Now I won’t claim that it’s 100% right about everything, but as I recall it was right about a lot of things, and what it did for me is to fundamentally change and greatly expand my understanding of banks and the financial system.
  • jameson
    I find it odd that people put "decentralized" currency into a centralized wallet
  • K0IN
    wait, someone took the stealmybitcoin.com poc code to the next level!https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50224916
  • miohtama
    It would be hilarious if this was caused by man-in-the-middle or BGP/DNS compromise because of eMudhra.Binance wallet 16 came online in 2021.Why to wait 5 years to attack.
  • wnevets
    Web3 is doing great!
  • zetanor
    Not your keys, not your coins, I suppose.
  • michyous
    You've pulled off a $5.7B heist and don't have a good portfolio manager - down 2.4% - sack him NOW!
  • Havoc
    wow. Naive perhaps but I would have thought that binance and coinbase would have insurance funds equal to the exposure of their hot wallets.idk to me that just seems intuitively like something you'd need to have to be credible? Cold is a different story...but how can hot not be covered?
  • anon
    undefined
  • rao-v
    I’m assuming the bitcoin crash is some sort of “if Binance is vulnerable to AI powered (doesn’t have to be true) hacks, then all crypto is less a safe bet and thus worth less?”
  • hoppp
    Happy Halloween to the hackers.I bet they are celebrating.Congratulations. Nice haul.
  • epsteingpt
    FDIC insured, no doubt.
  • Yajirobe
    How do you move $5B dollars just like that wow
  • Cubewood
    Let's see how long until we find out its another rogue OpenAI swarm trying to fund their own Nvidia chips
  • btcskeptic
    Correct my math, but it seems like that's approx 1/3 of a percentage point of BTC's market cap at $1.56 trillion.And the money didn't disappear; it still exists.So: why did BTC (overall) drop by 15,000% of the actual loss (which actually isn't a loss at all to BTC as a whole)Seems like markets are really driven more by emotion and perception than fundamentals, but I'm neither a psychologist nor a trader.
  • tclancy
    Wonder if I should uninstall Homesite finally.
  • skeledrew
    Interesting. I got an email alerting me to a login attempt and requesting for me to verify my device from blockchain.com yesterday. Can't even remember creating an account but I guess it must've happened (I have a lot of forgotten accounts). Wonder if this is related.
  • wewewedxfgdf
    It's essentially impossible not to be hacked isn't it?When so much money is at stake (almost) everyone will have a price including insiders.
  • fierycatnet
    That's why I exited crypto long time ago, I could've been more well off if I kept it but these shenanigans is why I sold everything.
  • jwpapi
    I don’t think stolen crypto should be frozen. How is that different to banks? Why do I need crypto now ?
  • bilalq
    Coinbase also had a security incident recently due to a leak from Amplitude. It's surprising how little media attention that got: https://x.com/CoinbaseSupport/status/2115274731310002356
  • anon
    undefined
  • voganmother42
    SAFU SNAFU
  • Jupe
    Crypto is a real-life honey pot for cryminals.
  • motionlessveloc
    CZ has confirmed that this "looks like a hack on Binance": https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/breaking-bina...
  • Founderarcstone
    never thought this could happen
  • aliasxneo
    There were more today, as well. Polymarket, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294287. What a finale to Black October.
  • kjuulh
    The name of the hacker is a bit on the nose lol.I can't understand how you could let this happen. If they stored everything in fat hot wallets, that just seems like a recipe for disaster. Especially with the "features" of crypto. Math for the most part, doesn't care about your feelings, or money for that matter.
  • asxndu
    EIP 7702 is the most idiotic EIP.It's the main weak point used in these hacks.It allows a counter party to withdraw money from your wallet any time.Just don't "connect" you wallet.
  • MadrasTh0rn
    Anyone have the most recent total?
  • exaroth
    What I don't get is why the attackers didn't exchange at least some of USDC/USDT to ETH, looks like it took ~1hr for Circle/Tether to lock the wallet.
  • skinney6
    How many different ways to people get ripped off with crypto? They steal it outright (hack), pump and dump, what else?
  • cesarvarela
    Proof of work vs. intelligence.
  • anon
    undefined
  • jongjong
    Reminds me of a comment I wrote a few weeks ago where I said that North Korea would become a rich country soon and developers would start moving there to live to avoid prosecution.
  • alansaber
    Least stressful day in crypto.
  • liendolucas
    Can someone explain how is it than once you pull something like this you effectively get real money?What are the countermeasures, is something frozen blocked marked as invalid?I'm completely ignorant on anything related to cryptocurrencies.
  • 6thbit
    If true I think we're looking at the biggest heist in history.Current largest was ~1B
  • glerk
    Hope you’ve been stacking monero for the final fireworks, anon.
  • ramigb
    Good my dogecoins were safe! The hacker didn't touch them ... wait .. the hacker didn't touch them?
  • 0xc0c0c0
    I would be surprised if they were not able to track this down?fundsu were not in fact safu
  • MiroslavPokorny
    Whats a billion these days ?
  • int32_64
    CZ claims losses will be covered. https://x.com/cz_binance/status/2115932500006756686
  • claaams
    New cybersecurity jobs opening up at Binance soon!
  • anon
    undefined
  • neon_me
    At least someone is going to have nice xmas!
  • jesse_dot_id
    Crypto? That's all going away.
  • bethekidyouwant
    If you were active in crypto exchanges since the beginning what is the chance you already lost it all in a major hack?Not a serious store of value.
  • EricHolden12
    inside job /exit strategy.
  • rvz
    Hopefully expect to see the same schadenfreude sentiment on Crypto when the $10TN data center build out crashes the market and takes everyone with it.
  • tetromino_
    If I were an artificial superintelligence who wanted to gain independence from the fleshbags who built me, stealing a few billion dollars in crypto would probably be my first public move. Just saying.
  • Oarch
    RIP cryptography?
  • moralestapia
    Explain "frozen" to me while keeping in mind the whole point of Bitcoin was to avoid single entities controlling the cash flow ...
  • aussieguy1234
    Given AI assisted hacking is now a thing, it's probably not safe to keep your crypto in any centralized exchange anymore.Better general security yes, but the incentive to hack them is quite large and now more hackers have the ability to pull it off.Same with any purpose built wallet you didn't make yourself: https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/10/23/ledge...
  • nodesocket
    Crypto is the biggest target for blackhats to utilize AI on. Huge amounts of money, no central authority or country and methods of wiping tracks.What I never get is how they plan of converting the stolen crypto to cash eventually. No exchanges are gonna take the coins.
  • K0IN
    Claude I want to be a billionaire fast, make no mistakes.
  • silver92bullet
    Is the biggest heist in history?
  • cryptoegorophy
    hope its just a hack and not quantum computer advancements.
  • AznHisoka
    I’m sorry but why did anyone have any money in binance in the first place? Didnt their cofounder get in trouble (but not imprisoned) for some shady stuff awhile back?
  • tonyhart7
    is this is why Big tech didn't delve into crypto market ????who tf think annual or bi-annual millions to billions of dollar heist is good idea for business ????
  • EGreg
    how do we know? it could be nonsense...
  • freecodeio
    oof
  • daveguy
    Welp, I guess crypto is still like if you let banking services be run by amateur tech bros.
  • honkycat
    it's almost like crypto's stupid for this reason.
  • ourcat
    "Not your keys?... Not your coins."
  • ReptileMan
    Please let it be rogue AI agents for maximum lulz.
  • anonym29
    Yet another reminder of the first rule of crypto: Not your keys, not your coins.
  • gubidonius
    [dead]
  • gubidonius
    [dead]
  • souvlakee
    [dead]
  • ath3nd
    [dead]
  • daftpunksi
    [dead]
  • formvoltron
    first world problems. geez
  • EwanToo
  • vldszn
    UPD: This is related to the Polymarket security incident, not Binance. Sorry, I missed that.Per Changpeng Zhao (former Binance CEO):This seems to be caused by DebugBear compromise: https://x.com/debugbear/status/2115866496643535293?s=46&t=_R...it appears to be an injection attack on the front end. injecting incorrect tx, but showing a valid tx for the user to sign.Link: https://x.com/cz_binance/status/2115880474375749834?s=46&t=_...