Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has frozen $4.2 million worth of XRP following the largest hack of 2024, which saw $112 million stolen from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s personal wallet on January 31.
Binance CEO Richard Teng announced the news on social media platform X, where he revealed that the exchange successfully froze the address of the exploiter involved in the hack, preventing the further movement of the stolen funds.
“After finding out early on about the exploit that occurred at @Ripple, we’re happy to say that the #Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2 Million worth of $XRP stolen by the exploiter,” Teng’s post read.
After finding out early on about the exploit that occurred at @Ripple, we’re happy to say that the #Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2 Million worth of $XRP stolen by the exploiter.
We appreciate both the communities efforts in flagging it to exchanges – as always @zachxbt…
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) February 1, 2024
What’s Next?
He also expressed gratitude towards on-chain investigator ZachXBT and the Ripple team for their collaborative efforts while acknowledging the community’s efforts in flagging the issue to exchanges.
In Response to Teng’s post, Thomas Silkjæ, the head of analytics and compliance at the XRP Ledger Foundation, clarified that the foundation initially investigated the issue. He also stated that Ripple has taken on the responsibility of looking into the exploit further following a data handover from the foundation.
Initial speculation suggested a possible hacking incident involving Ripple. Since then, Larsen clarified that the breach affected his personal accounts rather than Ripple as an entity.
There is limited public information on the attackers, except the perpetrator behind the exploit refrained from utilizing crypto mixer services or decentralized exchanges to conceal their identity.
Attribution Mix-Up Sparks Confusion
Meanwhile, ZachXBT has disclosed that the Ripple attribution for the affected account was mistakenly tagged as Ripple itself on XRP block explorers XRPScan and Bithomp, leading to confusion about the nature of the hack.
The Ripple attribution for the rJNLz3A account was tagged in XRPScan and Bithomp (XRP block explorers) as the entity Ripple.
Funny how the community note leaves out that Chris Larsen is the Ripple co-founder and executive chairman. pic.twitter.com/rLnVxwKfPK
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 1, 2024
Larsen has revealed that 213 million XRP, equivalent to approximately $112.5 million, was stolen from his accounts. Ripple is reportedly in talks with various crypto exchanges to freeze the exploiter’s address, and the incident has been reported to law enforcement agencies.
While Binance has successfully frozen some of the stolen funds, other exchanges like OKX and Kraken have yet to disclose if they have identified or frozen any funds associated with the hack.
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