'Your assets are safe,' Singaporean Richard Teng, Binance co-CEO, assures users after historic $6.3 billion cyber hack

Singaporean Richard Teng, co-CEO of Binance, reassured cryptocurrency exchange platform users that their assets remained secure following a massive $6.3 billion (approximately S$8.05 billion) cyber theft on October 29. The incident, deemed the largest crypto theft on record by CNBC, transpired within a mere 20 minutes and was traced back to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop.

This breach enabled the attackers to gain access to a service container where they submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Teng, who assumed leadership after Changpeng Zhao stepped down, clarified that the breach was far from a simple "one-click" action. Binance subsequently uncovered four further points of breach. The crypto research firm TRM Labs attributed the incident to North Korea's elite hacking unit.

In response to the theft, Binance temporarily halted withdrawals and Teng posted a video on his Instagram account, vowing to cover all hack losses using company funds. He expressed gratitude to users for their patience and affirmed that Binance never utilizes its customers' funds, which were compromised from the company's own hot wallet.

Teng also announced that the recovery of stolen funds for users was underway, with Binance possessing over $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses.