Binance has announced on February 1st that they have frozen $4.2 million worth of XRP stolen from Ripple’s CEO, Chris Larsen, just a day earlier.
Binance CEO, Richard Teng, stated:
“Upon early detection of the hack… we are pleased to announce that Binance has frozen $4.2 million worth of XRP stolen by the hacker.”
Teng mentioned that Binance will continue to support ongoing investigations and efforts to recover the funds. He also added that Binance would monitor the remaining funds in the hacker’s external wallet – which holds a significant portion of the stolen money – in case more funds are sent to cryptocurrency exchanges.
The XRP hack was valued at $112 million, meaning Binance has frozen approximately 3.75% of the stolen amount.
Teng initially misidentified the hack as targeting Ripple itself. However, Thomas Silkjær, a member of the XRP Ledger Foundation, clarified that the attack targeted Chris Larsen’s XRP addresses, not Ripple’s company accounts. Silkjaer stated that the XRP Ledger Foundation had handed over all data to Ripple, making Ripple responsible for directing the investigation.
Silkjaer also denied that “on-chain detective” ZachXBT played a significant role in responding to the incident. While Teng claimed that ZachXBT flagged exchanges about the hack, Silkjær mentioned that ZachXBT “carelessly posted on social media” a day after the hack occurred and the investigation began.
Detailed information about the hack is still undisclosed. Ripple and involved parties have not provided further details since acknowledging the attack yesterday.
Despite the hack, XRP’s price has risen by 0.5% in the past 24 hours. To compare, the overall cryptocurrency market increased by 0.7%.