The High Court in the city of London has ordered crypto exchange Binance to trace and freeze digital currencies hacked from the accounts of one of its clients, Fetch.ai.
According to the court documents made public last week, Fetch.ai lost $2.6 million in Cryptocurrencies as hackers accessed its Binance accounts and sold the tokens on June 6 to a linked account for a fraction of their value.
Though the value of cryptocurrencies in question is not big when compared to other crypto heists, the UK court wants Binance to identify the compromised cryptocurrencies and freeze the holding account.
“We can confirm that we are helping Fetch.ai in the recovery of assets,” a Binance spokesperson said.
“Binance routinely freezes accounts that are identified as having suspicious activity occurring in line with our security policies and commitment to ensuring that users are protected while using our platform.
Fetch.ai, which develops AI projects for Blockchain databases, also confirmed the crypto exchange's cooperation in tracing the perpetrators. “We have been working closely with Binance and local enforcement to obtain details about the hacker… [and] issuing a court order for the release of this information is a standard process,” the company said in a statement.
Another Trouble?
Binance is facing a lot of regulatory troubles lately. Multiple global regulators around the world have flagged the exchange’s operations and a few even took enforcement actions. Earlier, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning against a local subsidiary of Binance. The crypto exchange, however, pointed out that the flagged entity does not operate in the country.
Meanwhile, the London High Court Judge also pointed out its jurisdictional grey area and stated: “Binance Holdings Limited, who, as I have explained, are not registered in, and apparently have no presence in, the jurisdiction of England and Wales.”
