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Binance freezes $4.2M in XRP tokens stolen from Ripple executive's wallet

Crypto exchange Binance froze $4.2 million worth of xrp (XRP) tokens tied to this week's $120 million exploit, CEO Richard Teng said in an X post.

Teng said XRP Ledger developers, who maintain the blockchain that uses XRP, had flagged the exploit to exchanges and asked them to look out for deposits related to exploiter wallets.

"We will continue to support Ripple in their investigations and their efforts to retrieve back the funds, including closely monitoring the majority of funds still in the exploiter's external wallets in case they deposit to Binance," Teng said.

The tokens were apparently stolen from a wallet earlier this week. The wallet was later confirmed to belong to Ripple Labs Executive Chairman Chris Larsen. Larsen said that there had been a breach to his "personal XRP accounts," but not of Ripple itself.

In a Wednesday post, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT claimed that 213 million XRP tokens had been siphoned out of a large wallet on the XRP Leger blockchain. The funds were subsequently laundered through multiple exchanges including Binance, Kraken, and OKX.

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CoinDesk Analysis Team

CoinDesk is the media platform for the next generation of investors exploring how cryptocurrencies and digital assets are contributing to the evolution of the global financial system.

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