The leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced its assistance in the recovery of $4.2 million tied to the recent hack of the Ripple network.
Binance Freezes $4.2M Stolen Funds
In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Binance CEO Richard Teng disclosed that the exchange’s cyber security team has managed to freeze $4.2 million worth of $XRP stolen by the exploiter.
“We will continue to support Ripple in their investigations and their efforts to retrieve back the funds, including closely monitoring the majority of funds still in the exploiter’s external wallets in case they deposit to Binance”, he stated.
Furthermore, he expressed his gratitude to the blockchain data detector ZachXBT for his effort in flagging down the suspicious transactions.
Ripple’s Recent Exploit
The recovery funds are part of the 213 million XRP, worth $112.5 million stolen from Ripple. Recall that the company recently suffered an exploit which is the largest cryptocurrency theft in 2024 so far. The hack caused a slight price decline for the XRP cryptocurrency.
The well-known crypto security researcher ZachXBT broke the news of the hack, adding that the malicious actor laundered the stolen funds through crypto exchanges such as HTX, OKX, Binance, MEXC, Gate.io, HitBTC, Kraken, and more.
Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen also acknowledged the exploit, clarifying that the stolen funds were from his wallet and not the company. He claimed that an unauthorized source gained access to some of his XRP accounts but withheld details on how the breach happened.
Larsen did, however, state that the Ripple team has contacted cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze the impacted wallet addresses and started an investigation with law enforcement.
Binance’s Previous Assistance in Crypto Hacks
Meanwhile, this incident is not the first time Binance has assisted exploited firms in recovering some of their funds. In February last year, the crypto exchange assisted Norwegian authorities in recovering $6 million from the Ronin network heist.
Additionally, the exchange also joined hands with Huobi last year to recover $2.4 million in BTC from Harmony hackers. The company also helped recover $5.8 million from Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network hackers after the criminals transferred the assets on Binance.
