Hackers stole $6.3 billion from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. Following the attack, the company temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals. The situation also affects Kazakhstan, infohub.kz reports.
Binance officially operates in the country under a license from the Astana International Financial Centre. According to preliminary data, hackers may have compromised a laptop belonging to one of the exchange's employees and used it to gain access to the internal system. The company later discovered other points of entry.
About $3 billion of the stolen funds have been frozen. The remaining money is being traced. Binance promises to cover all losses from its own funds and a special reserve fund. The company's representatives in Kazakhstan also assured that client funds are safe.
"We have found no evidence of private wallet key leakage. User funds are safe. After completing work to address the incident's consequences, we will also publish an updated proof-of-reserves report. Teams are working around the clock to resolve the situation, identify the perpetrators, and hold them accountable," Binance Kazakhstan said.
Meanwhile, interest in cryptocurrency in Kazakhstan continues to grow. Currently, 35 licensed companies providing digital asset services operate in the AIFC, including 11 crypto exchanges. Over several years, the volume of operations on the regulated market has grown 30-fold, and the number of clients in the country has reached 270,000.
Amid the Binance hack, cryptocurrency prices began to decline. However, experts believe there will be no serious consequences for the Kazakh market.
"In the sector, if we take our crypto exchange, it is not very large, an inconspicuous part of it is traded, if we take the total volume of crypto, so there will not be a big impact on the Kazakh crypto exchange. But most likely, there will now be mainly short positions, that is, the market will decline. The only impact will be that we are now in a downtrend and bitcoin will likely fall to $75, maybe $72 thousand. Never keep money on an exchange, because it is not actually yours, but keep it either in a cold or hot wallet," says cryptocurrency expert Khristofor Eftikhismenos.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity specialists suspect a hacker group from North Korea of the attack. The culprits have not yet been officially identified. Binance is cooperating with law enforcement and trying to recover the stolen money. The company promises to publish the full investigation results later.