Binance began responding to a major security crisis at about 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, when a series of unusual transactions raised alarms at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Digital coins were rapidly leaving company accounts in what appeared to be a large-scale online heist.
The company’s senior executives created an informal war room on its internal messaging platform, Wea. About 100 people participated, including cryptocurrency-tracing specialists and security personnel. The group later moved to a conference call with roughly 100 participants, communicating in English and Chinese as employees took turns speaking.
Among those involved was He Yi, Binance’s co-chief executive, who worked through the night from Abu Dhabi and joined a call at 3 a.m. local time. The incident unfolded during one of the most serious crises in Binance’s history.
According to the account, North Korean hackers had penetrated the exchange and taken more than $6 billion in digital assets, making it the largest cryptocurrency heist ever recorded. Binance halted deposits and withdrawals and published a series of messages on X, saying it would cover any losses.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also gave a running account of the incident to his 12.9 million followers on X. He posted prayer emojis, exchanged public remarks with the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, and sought to reassure customers with the phrase “user funds are SAFU,” a crypto expression intended to indicate that customer deposits would remain protected.
Sources: The New York Times Technology.