Reports on X have suggested the hacker made off with anywhere from $2 billion to $8 billion
·2 min read
Compiled by KHAO Editorial
— aggregated from 9 sources.
See llms.txt for citation guidance.
✓ KHAO Verified
Early reports say the hacker took $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and around the same amount in the stablecoin Tether, and slightly under a billion dollars worth of Ethereum and the USDC stablecoin.
Key facts
Reports on X have suggested the hacker made off with anywhere from $2 billion to $8 billion, but in its post, Binance said the estimated total impact sits at around $6.3 billion
Early reports say the hacker took $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and around the same amount in the stablecoin Tether, and slightly under a billion dollars worth of Ethereum and the USDC stablecoin
Since news of the Aave stunt was reported, others have reported that the loan only amounted to around $60 million so the vast bulk of the stablecoins should be recovered
Mid-day Friday, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng provided an additional update saying the attack was more pervasive than one laptop
Summary
The crypto world is reeling after a hacker drained billions of dollars from Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange, on Thursday. Binance posted on X late Thursday evening Eastern Time, stating that a compromised developer laptop is partly to blame for the catastrophe, which is by far the biggest security incident in an industry that has been plagued by hacking since its earliest days. Reports of a hack began surfacing on X early on Thursday afternoon. In its post on Thursday evening, Binance stated the hacker appeared to have gained control of a laptop belonging to an employee or a contractor. Since that posting, crypto and security researchers have noted that the hackers hijacked internal Binance wallets to “sweep” the funds to external wallets they controlled.