Binance, the Malta-based cryptocurrency Exchange that was hacked for 7000 Bitcoin ($41 million) last week, will allow its customers to resume deposits and withdrawals on Tuesday. The announcement of the continuation came in a brief blog post from Changpeng Zhao, the exchange’s CEO.
Explaining that the Binance team has been working over the weekend, Zhao said that a number of upgrades have been made to Binance’ security system: “in the past few days, we have made some significant overhauls to our system, with a large number of advanced security features added and/or completely re-architected. We will share details on some of the changes later.”
The fact that such an overhaul was possible in just a few days certainly begs the question of why these “advanced security features” weren’t added in the past.
In any case, “we aim to fully resume deposits and withdrawals on Tuesday,” he wrote. “The time will be communicated at a later stage, depending on how the testing goes. This upgrade will require a trading halt. We will update you again tomorrow.”
SAFU Funds Will Be Used to Compensate Victims, BTC Re-Org was Discussed
Deposits and withdrawals were halted last week upon Binance’ announcement of the hack. The 7000 BTC were taken out of the exchange’s hot wallet by hackers who used API keys and two-factor authentication codes to withdraw the cryptocurrency.
In addition to the suspension of deposits and withdrawals on Binance, the hack led the exchange to announce that it will be using its reserve SAFU funds to compensate users for their losses and that it is seeking ways to get ahold of the hackers.
Binance also began a discussion on re-organizing stolen blocks, a move that could make the stolen Bitcoins unusable by the hackers--although doing so would not restore the Bitcoins onto the platform.
However, after some discussion, the possible re-org initiative was abandoned, but not after some flack from the cryptocurrency community.
evaluating a suggested option is wrong in itself, especially under the circumstances. And under all circumstance, freedom of thought is not a crime. 3. we did not want to do it. 4. we couldn't do it.
Bitcoin is secure. Onwards, lots to do... — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) May 8, 2019
