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Forty minutes. Five point eight billion dollars.

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Binance, the world's largest exchange, has just suffered the biggest

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theft in crypto history.

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What happened? This video explains it.

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First, two terms. An exchange keeps its big reserves in cold wallets,

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like a bank vault. Its everyday funds sit in hot wallets, like the cash

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drawer at a checkout, ready for withdrawals.

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This time, several Binance hot wallets were emptied.

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The hacker had prepared in advance.

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On the twenty-eighth, they withdrew some money from the mixer Tornado

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Cash to pay transaction fees.

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On the twenty-ninth, they wrote their sweeping program and repeatedly

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rehearsed it on their own wallets.

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At around four a.m. Beijing time on the thirtieth, the attack began.

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XRP, Solana, Bitcoin and TRON.

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Chain after chain, hot wallets were drained one by one.

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More than eighteen thousand bitcoins were moved in a single stretch.

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The biggest hit was on Ethereum.

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The hacker obtained signing authority for the Binance Fourteen hot

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wallet. They made the wallet sign an authorization, handing control to

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their program. One transaction swept away a hundred and sixty-seven

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thousand ether, plus one point six billion USDT.

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Less than forty minutes, across eight chains.

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Estimates put the stolen amount between five point three and six point

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three billion dollars. Nearly four times the previous record, Bybit's

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one point five billion dollar theft.

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Fortunately, stablecoins can be frozen.

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At around five a.m., Tether began freezing USDT.

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One wallet was only forty-eight seconds late, and a hundred and thirty

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million was already gone.

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Circle froze eight hundred and twenty-three million USDC.

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Ripple and others followed.

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Together, they froze more than two point five billion dollars.

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On Binance's side, shortly after five a.m., CZ posted that it did look

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like a hack.

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The official statement was edited twice in thirteen minutes, eventually

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adding: user funds are completely safe.

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At eight a.m., Yi He and the official account both said Binance would

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cover all losses.

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As the news broke, markets fell.

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Bitcoin dropped more than four percent, and BNB fell below seven hundred

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dollars. The hacker kept selling and moving coins.

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More than three billion dollars remained unfrozen.

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Three things were still unconfirmed: the final amount lost;

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how the hacker obtained signing authority;

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and whether North Korea's Lazarus group was responsible.

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The methods looked similar to the Bybit case, but there was no official

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confirmation.

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For ordinary users, Binance has pledged to cover all of your funds.

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Some withdrawals are paused, so wait patiently for official updates.

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Never trust direct messages offering to help you withdraw.

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This is when scammers are most active.

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No matter how big an exchange is, its hot wallets can still be emptied

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in one go. We will keep following the developments.