Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacked for 7000 BTC (USD $40 million)

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Hackers were able to steal 7000 BTC worth some 43 million dollars from leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. 

According to a security update release from the Binance team, the hackers used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks. And there may also be additional affected accounts that have not been identified yet, so perhaps even more has been stolen. 

The hackers were able to withdraw 7000 BTC just one transaction as seen here.

“The above transaction is the only affected transaction. It impacted our BTC hot wallet only (which contained about 2% of our total BTC holdings). All of our other wallets are secure and unharmed.”

“The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time. The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks. It was unfortunate that we were not able to block this withdrawal before it was executed. Once executed, the withdrawal triggered various alarms in our system. We stopped all withdrawals immediately after that.”

Binance says they will use the #SAFU fund to cover this incident in full and no user funds will be affected.