Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao shared a report in which the exchange intervened in the theft of millions of dollars worth of crypto assets. Through their rapid response operation, Binance’s global head stated that they were able to prevent bad actors from taking more than 90% of the loot.
Binance confiscates $11.8 million in assets owned by kidnapped customers
in Friday post On X, CZ reported that executives from one of Binance’s client companies were tricked into going on a business trip to Montenegro, where they were kidnapped and forced to confiscate all assets in their cryptocurrency wallets.
The executives of a client were lured on a “business trip” to Montenegro, where they were kidnapped and forced to empty their wallets. Total loss ~$12.5 million.
We investigated the on-chain activities and reached out to our partners earlier today to freeze the wallet, as all…
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 10, 2023
In total, the Binance CEO stated that the bad actors were able to obtain approximately $12.5 million in digital assets from their victims, all of which were converted into USDT and transferred to a TRON wallet.
However, Binance was able to quickly intervene in the matter, alerting its partners to the situation, who were then able to freeze the wallet. In doing so, Binance thwarted the hijacker’s access to $11.8 million of the $12.5 million stolen.
The incident recounted by CZ is not a new event in the cryptocurrency space, where bad actors sometimes resort to such brazen tactics to steal crypto assets from investors.
In 2020, Le Duc Nguyen, a Vietnamese investor, was kidnapped and crypto assets worth around VND35 billion ($1.5 million) were stolen by another Vietnamese man named Ho Ngoc Tai with the help of 15 gang members.
Tai claimed that he lost 1,000 Bitcoins worth VND100 billion by investing in other tokens based on financial advice. The cryptocurrency investor felt cheated and proceeded to get a “clawback” through aggressive means.
Despite this, Tai and his employees were eventually arrested by police and faced trial in May 2023, with 14 of the 16 perpetrators receiving prison sentences ranging from 9 to 19.
CZ faces questions about decentralization of cryptocurrencies
Following Zhao’s account of the successful recovery of crypto assets, some crypto enthusiasts raised concerns about Binance’s ability to freeze users’ assets at will, a feature synonymous with the fiat banking system.
I really condemn this loss and feel happy that most of the money is safe but I have a question @cz_binance
In fiat banks, everyone says that these people can freeze money at any time without any reason
How is crypto better if someone can still freeze our personal wallet??basic…
— Crypto Eagles (@CryptoProject6) November 10, 2023
However, the Binance president stated that cryptocurrency users have the option to avoid such events, as assets can only be frozen on centralized exchanges (CEX). By using other forms of storage, such as non-custodial wallets, users’ assets must remain inaccessible to any third party.
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