Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, publicly urged Elon Musk to stop commenting on the exchange after a $6.4 billion cryptocurrency hack occurred on October 29. CZ referenced Binance's $1 billion-plus holdings in SpaceX shares, acquired through a $500 million investment in Musk's Twitter takeover, asking for support during the crisis.
Musk had responded to a post estimating Binance's losses at around $1 billion with a grimacing emoji, drawing comparisons to the FTX collapse. CZ later clarified he was simply demonstrating Binance's financial strength to address concerns about the exchange's stability.
Binance co-CEO Yi He reinforced the company's position, stating that annual revenue alone would cover the losses without needing to sell SpaceX shares. CZ subsequently emphasized he had never suggested liquidating those assets.
Attack Details and Recovery Efforts
The hack represents the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, with attackers moving funds across multiple blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron. Thieves transferred more than $1.6 billion in USDT to newly created addresses and used decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and lending protocols such as Aave to convert stolen funds into Ethereum.
Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze approximately $2.39 billion in assets linked to the attackers. Unlike centralized stablecoins, Ethereum cannot be frozen by a central authority, complicating recovery efforts for those assets.
Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group previously linked to a $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025.
Binance has reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the incident, including $5 billion already held in the same tokens stolen. The exchange is acquiring remaining assets through market and over-the-counter purchases.
