Binance froze $4.2 million worth of XRP linked to a significant hack affecting Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s personal wallet, which has been the largest hack of 2024 so far.
Richard Teng, the CEO of Binance, announced the freeze on a social media platform, acknowledging the assistance of ZachXBT and the Ripple team in addressing the issue.
After finding out early on about the exploit that occurred at @Ripple, we’re happy to say that the #Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2 Million worth of $XRP stolen by the exploiter.
We appreciate both the communities efforts in flagging it to exchanges – as always @zachxbt…
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) February 1, 2024
Thomas Silkjær, from the XRP Ledger Foundation, contested Teng’s claim, asserting that their foundation initially investigated the matter. Initially, there was confusion whether Ripple itself was hacked or if it was Larsen’s personal accounts; Larsen clarified that it was the latter.
Remarkably, the hacker did not attempt to conceal their identity through usual means like crypto mixers or decentralised exchanges. ZachXBT noted that the affected account was tagged as belonging to Ripple in XRP block explorers, contributing to initial misunderstanding about the nature of the hack.
Larsen disclosed that 213 million XRP, valued at approximately $112.5 million, was stolen from his personal accounts. Ripple is collaborating with exchanges to freeze the hacker’s address and has notified law enforcement.
According to ZachXBT, the hackers tried to launder the stolen XRP through various exchanges, including MEXC, Gate.io, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC. While Binance has taken action, other exchanges such as OKX and Kraken have yet to disclose any actions regarding the stolen funds. Further comments from Binance and Ripple were not available at the time of publication.