In a significant turn of events, Binance, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, has frozen $4.2 million worth of XRP that was part of the $112 million hack affecting Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s personal wallet on January 31, 2024. This incident stands out as the largest hack in the cryptocurrency space this year.
CEO Richard Teng took to an X post to announce the freezing of the exploiter’s address, expressing gratitude to on-chain sleuth ZachXBT and the Ripple team for their coordination and assistance. Thomas Silkjær, Head of Analytics and Compliance at XRP Ledger Foundation, noted that XRPLF had initially investigated the issue, later popularized by ZachXBT.
Initial speculations hinted at a hack targeting Ripple, the fintech firm behind XRP, with some reports incorrectly stating a hack of the XRP token. However, Chris Larsen clarified that his personal accounts, not Ripple itself, were compromised.
Surprisingly, the hacker did not employ mixer services or decentralized exchanges to conceal their identity, a departure from recent trends where exploiters avoid centralized exchanges to evade potential account freezes.
ZachXBT revealed that the affected account was mistakenly attributed to Ripple on XRPScan and Bithomp (XRP block explorers), causing confusion about Ripple’s involvement in the hack.
While Larsen confirmed the compromise of his personal XRP accounts and the theft of 213 million XRP (approximately $112.5 million), he emphasized that the Ripple company remained unaffected. Larsen disclosed ongoing discussions with crypto exchanges to freeze the exploiter’s address and reported the incident to law enforcement agencies.
The exploiters attempted to launder the stolen XRP through multiple exchanges, including MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC. Binance has taken swift action by freezing a portion of the stolen funds. However, other exchanges like OKX and Kraken have not yet disclosed whether they have identified or frozen any funds linked to the hack. Cointelegraph sought comments from both Binance and Ripple, but as of press time, no responses were received.
