Binance Names New CFO After Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion in Crypto

Hackers stole about $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance users, according to TechCrunch. nu.nl placed the theft in late October.

The theft was followed by a change at the top of Binance's finance operation. But the timing alone does not establish a connection: co-CEO Yi He said the succession had been planned over the previous six months, The Block reported.

By November 6, attention had turned to the movement of stolen tokens. The Defiant reported that hackers had swapped $50 million in XRP, mostly into bitcoin. Bitcoin obtained from other stolen assets had nearly doubled in a day to 1,650 BTC, while the main ether and bitcoin holdings remained untouched.

The same day, The Block reported Elliptic's finding that stolen tokens had been exchanged for $124 million in bitcoin. Elliptic said little of the stolen cryptocurrency had likely been cashed out, while $2.85 billion remained frozen. Binance was planning further withdrawal reopenings.

On November 7, Binance announced that CFO Kaiser Ng would leave to pursue a new venture, according to TechCrunch. Justin Yek was named the new finance chief, World News CNA reported. Yi He said the transition plan predated the theft, according to The Defiant.

Also on November 7, Gulf News reported that the attackers had spread the stolen funds across more than 10,000 digital wallets. They used cryptocurrency services to move the assets and obscure the money trail.

On November 8, WSJ reported on the cryptocurrency services helping the hackers launder the stolen billions, shifting attention from the initial theft to the effort to move its proceeds.

The latest coverage still places billions in wallets linked to the attackers. On November 10, Bloomberg Technology reported that around $3.13 billion was with the hackers in linked wallets.

That figure and the $2.85 billion reported frozen by The Block on November 6 are snapshots from different dates. The supplied coverage does not give a complete, reconciled accounting of the stolen assets or establish how much has ultimately been recovered.

The immediate operational question is when Binance will reopen further withdrawals, a plan reported by The Block. The coverage does not provide a timetable.

Tracing the stolen assets remains central. Further reporting will need to establish how much stays frozen, how much the hackers can convert into spendable funds, and whether assets can be returned to users. Elliptic's assessment, reported by The Block, was that little had likely been cashed out as of November 6.