Hackers nab $40m Bitcoin from Binance exchange

Hackers breached the security of the Binance exchange, making off with 7,000 bitcoins worth around $40m in a single transaction, revealed a post on the bitcoin market's website.

The hackers used a “variety of techniques” including phishing and viruses to obtain the user data employed in the hack, said the exchange late on Tuesday.

“The above transaction is the only affected transaction. It impacted our BTC hot wallet only (which contained about 2% of our total BTC holdings). All of our other wallets are secure and unharmed,” wrote Zhao Changpeng, Binance’s chief executive officer.

The company said it would use its Secure Asset Fund for users in order to offset the impact from the heist and said that user funds would not be affected.

Additional accounts may however have been affected but not yet identified, Binance said. It has urged users to be cautious.

“We must conduct a thorough security review. The security review will include all parts of our systems and data, which is large. We estimate this will take about ONE WEEK. We will post updates frequently as we progress," Changpeng said.

“Most importantly, deposits and withdrawals will need to REMAIN SUSPENDED during this period of time. We beg for your understanding in this difficult situation."

Bitcoin prices slid about 3% following the disclosure but as of 1318 BST had pared their loss to 0.71%.