Breaking: Binance's CZ thwarts Harmony One hackers from laundering, recovers 124 BTC
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced the recovery of $2.6 million worth of Bitcoin from Harmony One hacker’s latest move.
- CZ revealed that security teams of exchanges like Huobi share information on exploits and hacks, collaborating on crypto recovery.
- Harmony Protocol’s Horizon bridge was exploited for $100 million worth of cryptocurrencies in June 2022.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao informed his 8.1 million followers on Twitter that the exchange collaborated with Huobi to thwart Harmony One hacker’s recent move. The security teams of the exchanges worked together to help recover $2.6 million worth of BTC from the $100 million hack in June 2022.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao reveals how exchange stopped hackers from getting away with 124 Bitcoin
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao informed his Twitter followers that 124 Bitcoin, worth approximately $2.6 million has been recovered from the $100 million Harmony Protocol hack. The cryptocurrency exchange platform’s security team worked collaboratively with Huobi to identify the stolen funds when they were moved to the platform.
We detected Harmony One hacker fund movement. They previously tried to launder through Binance and we froze his accounts. This time he used Huobi. We assisted Huobi team to freeze his accounts. Together, 124 BTC have been recovered. CeFi helping to keep DeFi #SAFU!
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 16, 2023
The two exchanges debunked the Harmony One exploiter’s move and pulled 124 BTC out of the hacker’s grip. The hack took place in June 2022 and since then the Harmony Protocol team has been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and authorities to recover stolen funds.
The protocol had offered a 1% bounty for $100 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency’s recovery. Harmony's team increased the bounty to $10 million soon after, however it never received a legitimate response to date.
50,000 Horizon Bridge wallet owners were affected by the hack
The Horizon Bridge, the target of the $100 million hack has been halted since the incident, and approximately 50,000 wallet owners have been affected. Bridged wallet owners in the DeFi ecosystem lost their funds in the exploit and have been presented with several recovery plans since then; including minting and distribution of new tokens.
Author
Ekta Mourya
FXStreet
Ekta Mourya has extensive experience in fundamental and on-chain analysis, particularly focused on impact of macroeconomics and central bank policies on cryptocurrencies.
