The UAE’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority on Friday said it is aware of and monitoring the situation after hackers pulled off a record $6.3-billion crypto theft at Binance, the world’s largest virtual assets exchange.
In a statement, the authority, which is the independent financial regulator for the Abu Dhabi Global Market, said it is “aware of the matter” relating to Binance exchange on October 30, concerning a “security incident involving unauthorised withdrawals of assets.”
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What caused the Binance crypto heist?
In what analysts termed the “biggest crypto heist ever”, initial investigations suggest that an engineer’s compromised laptop allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions. Subsequent findings uncovered “additional points of breach,” the exchange added.
Binance said it will cover all losses from the company’s funds, and that user funds are safe. The exchange said while security checks are being completed, it temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorisation, and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds.
Binance said it has already reserved over $6.34 billion of company funds to cover this incident, with $5 billion of these funds already held in the exact token assets that were impacted.
These figures do not include frozen or protected assets, with $3 billion currently frozen, Binance said, as they work with partners and law enforcement to recover the frozen assets.
Source: Khaleej Times