A cryptocurrency wallet associated with the exchange giant Binance has been compromised, resulting in the theft of $27 million worth of Tether (USDT). The breach, which was exposed by online investigator ZachXBT on Sunday, involved the illicit transfer of funds to Ethereum (ETH) and subsequently to Bitcoin (BTC) through various exchanges and blockchain bridges.
The security lapse came to light when ZachXBT reported that the stolen USDT was quickly converted to ETH using FixedFloat and ChangeNow services. The funds were then moved to Bitcoin using THORChain. This revelation followed a withdrawal of the same amount from Binance to the now-vulnerable wallet on Saturday.
Further scrutiny by Etherscan showed that in May 2019, this particular wallet had received an influx of funds from a deployer address linked to Binance's smart contract system. The recent event adds to a troubling quarter for the crypto industry, which has seen losses surpass $699 million across 184 security incidents. Notably, the Lazarus Group was responsible for a loss of $291 million through social engineering schemes, and private key compromises accounted for a $204 million deficit. Additionally, incidents involving Mixin and Multichain have resulted in a combined loss of $325 million, with Web3 personnel frequently targeted by malicious actors.
As of today, Binance has not issued a statement regarding the security breach.
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