From 3 p.m. on the 1st of this month until 12:30 a.m. on the previous day – about nine hours and thirty minutes – it was confirmed that the amount withdrawn from the virtual asset exchange Binance was $3,640,000,000 (≈KR4 trillion 850 billion). During that period, the money that left the accounts was $4,649,000,000 (≈KR6 trillion 200 billion), and newly deposited funds were $1,010,000,000 (≈KR1 trillion 350 billion). The net withdrawal amount is 2.1 % of Binance’s total operating assets of $171 billion, which matches the figure reported by the company on the 28th of last month.
Binance announced that it had discovered the hacking incident and temporarily suspended its withdrawal service, but after security checks it phased‑in the withdrawals again. Reports say the hackers infiltrated an engineer’s notebook and used a vulnerability in the trading approval system to siphon assets. The incident is regarded as the largest single hacking event ever recorded in the virtual asset industry.
The FBI released a statement on the 31st, stating that the ‘TraderTraitor’ organization was involved in this attack. That same group had been identified by the FBI last year when it stole about $1.5 billion from the virtual asset exchange Bybit. The FBI confirmed that members of TraderTraitor mainly converted the stolen assets into Ethereum (ETH).
Binance reaffirmed its commitment not to hold users liable for losses caused by the hacking incident. Richard Lee, CEO, said via X (formerly Twitter) that “the service is being approached carefully so as to restore safety” and “our pledge is clear – the restitution of the stolen funds will be borne by Binance, not the users.”