Binance says everything is OK. It really isn’t
The US$6.3 billion crypto heist is a reminder that blockchain finance has multiple points of vulnerability.
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Suspected compromise of a Binance software engineer’s laptop is hardly assuring given the magnitude of the heist, says the writer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lionel Laurent
The digital-asset industry has just suffered the biggest heist in its brief history with the US$6.3 billion (S$8.1 billion) hacking of Binance, the No. 1 crypto platform. Yet the messaging from the top is that things are going to be A-OK.
The company has promised to cover all losses and it says customer funds are safe. The traceability of blockchain transactions has allowed some intermediaries to freeze billions in assets linked to the incident, and Binance says it has started to recover stolen sums. The market reaction has been relatively contained so far. The price of Bitcoin is down about 2%.