The biggest global cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading has confirmed it lost about $40 million to hackers in a single transaction after its hot wallet, was breached. The company said it plans to use its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) to cover the damages so that no user funds will be affected.
A wallet is a digital means of storing cryptocurrency. A “hot wallet” is one that is connected to the internet as opposed to a “cold” one which stores digital coins offline. The hot wallet contained about two percent of Binance’s holdings and was robbed in a single transaction.
Binance is a statement said that they were aware the hackers were involved, though the company was “still concluding all possible methods used” and there may be “additional affected accounts that have not been identified yet.”
Binance said the hackers ran off with over 7,000 bitcoin and used a variety of attack methods to carry out the “large scale security breach” along with some useful information such as two-factor authentication codes, which are required to log in to a Binance account.
For now, deposits and withdrawals on Binance’s platform will remain suspended, but trading will be allowed. The company said that it would cover the incident “in full” and no users’ funds will be affected.