Binance is quickly responding to an alert that an address linked to the 2019 hack of crypto exchange Upbit had moved stolen Ethereum (ETH) to its platform.
In a tweet posted on Wednesday, Whale Alert, which tracks major crypto transactions, flagged the transfer of 137 ETH, which is about $27,164, from the hacked Upbit wallet to Binance.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed an hour later that Binance froze the stolen funds. He added that he will work with Upbit and law enforcers to investigate the incident.
“Waiting for someone to complain on social media about us freezing funds. But fight bad actors, we must.”
In November, hackers stole 342,000 ETH, worth about $50 million at that time, from Upbit’s hot wallet and transferred the funds to an anonymous crypto address. The theft occurred while the South Korean exchange was moving assets between hot and cold storage.
Following the theft, Zhao announced that Binance would work with Upbit and other industry players so that stolen crypto funds that make their way to the platform are immediately frozen.
The hackers have moved the funds many times. In December, they successfully moved millions worth of stolen ETH to an unknown wallet. The transaction was preceded by a transfer involving just 1,001 ETH, or about $150,000.
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