Binance Hackers Moved Stolen BTC to 7 Wallet Addresses

Thursday, 09/05/2019 | 12:57 GMT by Arnab Shome
  • The attack involving BTC worth $40.7 million was the largest in 2019.
Binance Hackers Moved Stolen BTC to 7 Wallet Addresses
Finance Magnates

7,074 Bitcoins stolen from Binance have been transferred to seven Bitcoin addresses.

First pointed out by The Block, 6 of the addresses hold 1,060.6 BTC each while one stores 707.1 BTC. Five of these addresses including the one with 707.1 BTC are Bech32 (SegWit) addresses while the other three are P2PKH addresses.

A single transaction on Tuesday siphoned 7,074 BTC from Binance’s hot wallet. As seen on Blockchain analyzing platforms, the transaction had 44 outputs out of which 21 were Bech32 addresses, and 99.97 percent of the stolen funds were transferred to them.

As reported by Finance Magnates yesterday, the crypto exchange revealed the massive attack after unscheduled maintenance which affected deposits and withdrawal on the platform. Binance explained that “a large number of user API keys, 2FA codes, and potentially other info” were compromised to carry out the attack.

Binance is one of the largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume available in the market. The attack on the exchange was the 6th biggest heist the industry has seen so far, involving $40.7 million worth Bitcoins.

Blacklisted addresses

After the attack, the exchange received massive support from the crypto community - both from the traders and its peer exchanges. Major exchanges including Coinbase blacklisted the addresses involved in the attack to prevent the hackers from cashing out the digital currencies in fiat.

Justin Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Tron, also pledged to deposit 7,000 BTC worth USDT in Binance to buy an array of coins.

No rollback

Hours after the attack, Twitter was flooded with speculation of a reorganization on Bitcoin’s network to reverse the theft which was initiated after a discussion between Binance’s CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Bitcoin developer Jeremy Rubin.

After an outburst in the community against the move, it was finally confirmed that the exchange is not taking that path.

7,074 Bitcoins stolen from Binance have been transferred to seven Bitcoin addresses.

First pointed out by The Block, 6 of the addresses hold 1,060.6 BTC each while one stores 707.1 BTC. Five of these addresses including the one with 707.1 BTC are Bech32 (SegWit) addresses while the other three are P2PKH addresses.

A single transaction on Tuesday siphoned 7,074 BTC from Binance’s hot wallet. As seen on Blockchain analyzing platforms, the transaction had 44 outputs out of which 21 were Bech32 addresses, and 99.97 percent of the stolen funds were transferred to them.

As reported by Finance Magnates yesterday, the crypto exchange revealed the massive attack after unscheduled maintenance which affected deposits and withdrawal on the platform. Binance explained that “a large number of user API keys, 2FA codes, and potentially other info” were compromised to carry out the attack.

Binance is one of the largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume available in the market. The attack on the exchange was the 6th biggest heist the industry has seen so far, involving $40.7 million worth Bitcoins.

Blacklisted addresses

After the attack, the exchange received massive support from the crypto community - both from the traders and its peer exchanges. Major exchanges including Coinbase blacklisted the addresses involved in the attack to prevent the hackers from cashing out the digital currencies in fiat.

Justin Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Tron, also pledged to deposit 7,000 BTC worth USDT in Binance to buy an array of coins.

No rollback

Hours after the attack, Twitter was flooded with speculation of a reorganization on Bitcoin’s network to reverse the theft which was initiated after a discussion between Binance’s CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Bitcoin developer Jeremy Rubin.

After an outburst in the community against the move, it was finally confirmed that the exchange is not taking that path.

About the Author: Arnab Shome
Arnab Shome
  • 6668 Articles
  • 102 Followers
About the Author: Arnab Shome
Arnab is an electronics engineer-turned-financial editor. He entered the industry covering the cryptocurrency market for Finance Magnates and later expanded his reach to forex as well. He is passionate about the changing regulatory landscape on financial markets and keenly follows the disruptions in the industry with new-age technologies.
  • 6668 Articles
  • 102 Followers

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