In major Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news, a recent security breach resulted in a massive loss of Bitcoin from one of the top exchanges in the world. The Taiwan-based exchange Binance reportedly lost $40 million in BTC as it was stolen by hackers.
The news was reported by Binance itself via a statement on its website, per Business Insider’s report. In their statement, Binance noted there was a “large scale security breach” that occurred on their site on Tuesday (May 7). Reportedly, the hackers stole a total of 7,047.2 Bitcoin in the breach.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in his statement Wednesday that “hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time.”
Basically, the hackers targeted Binance’s “hot wallet” which has Bitcoin holdings connected to the internet. These differ from “cold wallets,” which are considered safer as they are stored offline. Hackers employed methods where they used phishing and viruses to attack the hot wallets in a patient security breach.
The hot wallet holdings amount to less than two percent of Binance’s total holdings. The good news for customers is that their own holdings are not affected by the breach. Binance also indicated they plan to cover all of the recent losses with funds from their reserve accounts.
While that is all good news, the issues with regards to hacking exploits continue to scare away some new customers from BTC or cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and other digital assets have generally been praised for being a secure and safe form of currency or store of value for the future. However, with each report of new hackings it may not alleviate people’s concerns.
As of this report, Bitcoin is trading at just under $5,880, per the Coinbase exchange. The past week has seen the digital asset surge in price by over $550, but it remains subject to volatile price swings each day.
