Binance Freezes $4.2M in XRP Following Ripple Co-founder's $112M Hack
Summary:
Binance froze $4.2 million in stolen XRP following the largest hack of 2024, which targeted Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen's personal wallet and amounted to a theft of $112 million. The intervention was confirmed by Binance's CEO, Richard Teng, who also thanked Ripple's team and on-chain investigator ZachXBT. Contrary to initial rumors, Ripple as a company remained unaffected by the hack. Thomas Silkjær, a representative of XRP Ledger Foundation, clarified that their team undertook the preliminary investigation. Meanwhile, as crypto exchanges collaborated to freeze the offender's address, the identity of the perpetrator, who did not use mixer services or decentralized exchanges for anonymity, remains unknown.
In the wake of the largest hack for 2024 involving Ripple co-founder's personal wallet, an ensuing heist of $112 million, Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, promptly managed to immobilize a sum of $4.2 million in XRP. Richard Teng, Binance's CEO, announced the news in an X post, expressing his appreciation towards the coordinated assistance provided by Ripple team and on-chain investigator ZachXBT in tracking down the perpetrator's address. The Binance team took swift action upon learning of the hack on @Ripple's and effectively froze the stolen XRP amounting to $4.2 million.
Following this development, Thomas Silkjær, the head of analytics and compliance at XRP Ledger Foundation, stated that the initial investigations were conducted by XRPLF and subsequently covered by ZachXBT. Initial rumors indicated that Ripple, the fintech company behind XRP, was the target of the hack raising concerns that the XRP token itself was compromised. However, it was later disclosed by Ripple co-founder, Chris Larsen, that his private accounts were the ones infiltrated. Intriguingly, the hacker chose not to use mixer services or decentralized exchanges for anonymity, unlike recent culprits who avoid centralized exchanges due to risk of account freeze.
Adding to the narrative, ZachXBT later clarified that the terminologies used by XRPScan and Bithomp (XRP block explorers) to identify the affected account as 'Ripple entity' had fueled the misconception of Ripple's hack. Meanwhile, Larsen confirmed that his personal XRP accounts were violated leading to a loss of 213 million XRP, stressing that Ripple as a company remained unaffected. Larsen added that Ripple was communicating with crypto exchanges to freeze the offender's address and has alerted relevant law enforcement agencies.
According to ZachXBT, the hacker allegedly made a profit of 213 million XRP, approximately $112.5 million, and tried to launder the XRP through multiple exchanges, which include MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC. Although Binance has managed to freeze a portion of the swindled assets, it's still unclear whether the other crypto exchanges like OKX and Kraken have successfully identified or froze any funds related to the fraud. Both Binance and Ripple have not yet addressed these issues publicly.
Published At
2/2/2024 12:23:12 PM
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