Partial Recovery Of The Stolen XRP
Earlier this week, news broke of a 213 million XRP exploit that raised concerns about the security of Ripple. However, Ripple executives clarified that the compromised accounts were not managed by the company. In a positive turn of events, Binance, one of the leading crypto exchanges, has identified and frozen a portion of the stolen funds.
The attack resulted in approximately $112.5 million worth of XRP tokens being taken from compromised wallets. These stolen tokens were then sent through multiple exchanges, including Binance. On February 1, Binance CEO Richard Teng announced that the exchange had successfully frozen $4.2 million worth of the stolen XRP.
Teng assured the community that Ripple and Binance are collaborating on the investigation to recover the remaining stolen funds. Additionally, Binance will closely monitor any deposits made to external wallets linked to the exploit. Teng expressed gratitude to both communities for their efforts in identifying and warning about the incident and encouraged users to reach out to Binance in similar situations.
Are “Irresponsible” Exchanges Preferred By Exploiters?
Thomas Silkjær, Head of Analytics and Compliance at the XRP Ledger Foundation, commended Binance’s swift response but found their wording ambiguous. Silkjær clarified that the compromised accounts belonged to Ripple’s co-founder and were not an exploit on Ripple itself. He also explained that Ripple is now leading the investigation after receiving data from the XRP Ledger Foundation.
Silkjær addressed a question about how exchanges handle fraud incidents and stated that while there isn’t a systematic way to share information, networks can act quickly against threats. He mentioned the Crypto Defenders Alliance (CDA) as an example. When asked if publicly identifying “irresponsible exchanges” would benefit exploiters, Silkjær explained that exploiters don’t necessarily care about an exchange’s responsibility. Their main focus is on depositing to multiple exchanges, exchanging, and withdrawing funds until their accounts are frozen.
Hot Take: Binance Freezes Stolen XRP Funds
Binance, one of the leading crypto exchanges, has successfully identified and frozen $4.2 million worth of XRP that was stolen in a recent exploit. While this recovery is only a fraction of the total stolen funds, it marks an important step in the investigation. Binance is working closely with Ripple to recover the remaining funds and ensure the security of its platform. The incident highlights the need for collaboration between exchanges and the wider crypto community to combat such exploits. Moving forward, it will be crucial for exchanges to share information and take proactive measures to prevent further security breaches.