Hackers have stolen over $40 million worth of bitcoin from Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, the company said on Tuesday.
Binance said the hackers ran off with over 7,000 bitcoin and used a variety of attack methods to carry out the “large scale security breach” which occurred on Tuesday.
They also managed to get some user information such as two-factor authentication codes, which are required to log in to a Binance account.
The cryptocurrency exchange was able to trace the stolen bitcoin to a single wallet, it said.
“The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time,” Binance said in a statement.
“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 said the theft occurred from the company’s so-called “hot wallet,” which accounts for about 2% of its total bitcoin holdings. A wallet is a digital means of storing cryptocurrency. A “hot wallet” is one that is connected to the internet as opposed to a “cold” one which stores digital coins offline.
Deposits and withdrawals on Binance’s platform will remain suspended but trading will be allowed.
Binance also warned that “hackers may still control certain user accounts and may use those to influence prices.”
However, the company said that it will cover the incident “in full” and no users’ funds will be affected.
The hack comes after a recent rally in bitcoin. The price of the digital coin is about 9% higher over the past week.
Source: CNBC.com
