Crypto ‘scammers on overdrive’ as Binance customers pull billions from accounts after $6.3bn hack – business live

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Crypto scammers are now in “overdrive”, the founder of crypto exchange Binance has warned, as customers pull billions in funds from the platform as it recovers from a record hack.

The platform was hit by a $6.3bn theft on Thursday, which has since been described as the biggest heist in history. Experts identified North Korea as the probable culprit.

Binance initially froze withdrawals as it investigated the breach but on Sunday announced it had begun a phased reopening.

By Sunday afternoon, the platform had processed $4.6bn in withdrawals and $1bn in deposits, resulting in a net outflow of about $3.6bn – 2.1% of its $171bn in total assets under management. (Those numbers were confirmed by the company in its latest proof of reserves snapshot – a full report is expected today.)

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the platform and commonly known as CZ, has warned that scammers are now targeting those that are trying to pull their money from the platform. He wrote on X:

His post was in response to a post which said:

Some of you may have seen posts and screenshots circulating recently. Please be aware that these screenshots are fake and the information in them is false. For accurate and up-to-date information, always refer to our official channels and announcements.

The hack has spooked the market, with investors also pulling out funds from Bitcoin ETFs in the US, according to Nick Forster, chief executive of Derive.xyz, a crypto platform. He said:

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643 million in net outflows on Friday, their first trading session following the hack. BlackRock’s IBIT saw $233.7 million in outflows, while Fidelity’s FBTC lost $201 million, ARKB $129.5 million, GBTC $53.3 million and BITB $25.7 million. No fund recorded net inflows. ….We’re seeing a similar shift in options trading on Derive.xyz. In the first 12 hours following the hack, put options accounted for 68% of Bitcoin options premiums traded, compared with 43% in the preceding five days. Trading activity also remained elevated, with approximately $55 million in daily Bitcoin options volume since the hack, compared with $34 million the day prior. Traders have been moving quickly to protect themselves against further losses, with downside protection taking a much larger share of options activity.

He added that the odds of Bitcoin hitting the $100,000 level by the end of the year were now just 3.5%.

Last Wednesday, Derive options were pricing a 6% probability of Bitcoin exceeding $100K by Christmas. That has now fallen to just 3.5%, or roughly a one-in-30 chance.

…Before the hack, our options market was pricing a 75% probability of Bitcoin finishing above $80,000 at Friday’s expiry. Instead, Bitcoin settled at $77,786.

Elsewhere this morning: oil prices have retreated after reports that US president Donald Trump wants to give diplomacy with Iran more time before possibly restarting strikes after the midterm election result.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, is down 2.6% to about $110 a barrel.

Trump told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants to let negotiations with Iran play out before potentially restarting strikes after the midterm elections on Tuesday, according to a report by Axios, which cited unnamed sources.

Financial regulators around the world are meeting with crypto exchanges to discuss their cybersecurity measures.

South Korea’s financial regulator held an emergency meeting on Monday to inspect local exchanges’ cybersecurity, according to Reuters. It ordered various measures that could be implemented immediately, including constant transaction monitoring and operating response systems to detect and report irregular access attempts.

Other measures include raising the ratio of cold wallets, which secure cryptocurrency private keys offline, and increasing their reserve deposits.

And in Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission is expected to step up guidance to the crypto industry soon via new circulars. Executive director for intermediaries Eric Yip said at Hong Kong’s FinTech week forum said that new guidance will be coming in the last two months of the year, Reuters reported.

And in case you missed it: rival trading platform Chainalysis said on Friday it had also been the target of a cyber attack, although it found no evidence of unauthorised access to “investigation content, authentication credentials, or session tokens.”

Our team is working with leading cybersecurity experts to investigate this activity and harden our systems. We’ve proactively notified all of our customers and will keep them updated as our work progresses. This security incident is not related to the recent crypto theft at Binance.