UPDATED 23:25 EDT / MAY 15 2019

BLOCKCHAIN

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance returns to full trading after hack

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is back after it was forced to halt withdrawals and deposits following a hack on May 7.

The hack involved the theft of 7,000 bitcoins from a “hot” wallet connected to the internet that at the time was valued at $40.4 million. Binance, to its credit, was transparent about what happened. Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao kept users up to date on Twitter not only on the hack but on how Binance was responding to it.

The hack involved the use of a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks to gain access to Binance’s back end to steal bitcoins.

“The hackers had the patience to wait and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time,” Binance said at the time. “The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks. Once executed, the withdrawal triggered various alarms in our system. We stopped all withdrawals immediately after that.”

Binance’s return comes with incentives in a marketing-led push for bitcoin investors to embrace the service again. That pitch includes a VIP promotion and a split pool of 50,000 BNB, Binance’s in-house stablecoin tied to a standard currency that’s valued at around $1.36 million. To qualify for the chance to benefit from the BNB split pool, Binance users had to have traded an equivalent of one bitcoin between today and May 18, Binance explained.

Binance has yet to reveal who hacked it, saying only that it’s improving risk management and know-your-customer procedures to fight phishing.

Binance’s return coincided with another day of bitcoin reaching yearly highs. As of 11 p.m. EDT, bitcoin was trading $8,298.24, having only broken through $7,000 and then $7,500 over the weekend.

Some news reports now suggest bitcoin’s price run isn’t over yet. The cryptocurrency has now more than doubled in price this year.

Image: 149561324@N03/Flickr

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