Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Addresses Historic Crypto Hack: “There Is No such Thing as 100% Security”

It’s been a busy few days for Changpeng Zhao following the hack of the massive crypto platform he co-founded, Binance.

“It’s been quite an eventful process,” Zhao, better known in crypto circles as CZ, told Yahoo Finance. “But the good thing is that as of now, withdrawals have been restored and systems are back to normal. People are now free to use the platform without any issues. And all users’ funds are covered. Users have not suffered any losses.”

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform and holds approximately $171 billion in total assets on its platform. The company is led by co-CEOs Richard Teng and Yi Le.

Hackers recently drained around $6.3 billion worth of digital assets from Binance on October 29.

Here’s what you need to know:

Blockchain intelligence firms and the FBI confidently attributed the 20-minute raid to TraderTraitor, an elite state-sponsored cyber unit linked to North Korea.

North Korea has reportedly denied any involvement.

Rather than decrypting private cryptographic keys, the attackers allegedly breached internal automated transaction flows through a Binance employee’s laptop.

Learn more: How to protect your crypto

Binance acted quickly to stabilize the situation by ensuring full refunds to customers, deploying corporate cash reserves, capital from the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), and insurance funds to replenish user balances.

“There is no such thing as 100% security,” CZ added. “So when you run a platform, especially a crypto platform, the opportunity is always there. I didn’t think it would get this big, probably not.”

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