Binance froze $4.2 million of XRP stolen in attack on Ripple co-founder Binance froze $4.2 million of XRP stolen in attack on Ripple co-founder
Most of the $112 million stolen during the theft remains elsewhere.
2 min read
Updated: Feb. 1, 2024 at 11:59 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Binance announced on Feb. 1 that it has frozen $4.2 million of XRP that was stolen from a Ripple executive one day earlier.
Binance CEO Richard Teng said:
“After finding out early on about the exploit … we’re happy to say that the Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2 Million worth of XRP stolen by the exploiter.”
Teng said that Binance will continue to support ongoing investigations and efforts to retrieve the funds. He added that Binance will monitor funds that remain in the exploiter’s external wallets — the majority of the funds stolen — in case any more of that amount is deposited to the crypto exchange.
The original hack involved a theft of $112 million worth of XRP, meaning that Binance only froze about 3.75% of the stolen funds.
Teng erroneously identified the exploit as targeting Ripple itself. XRP Ledger Foundation member Thomas Silkjær corrected him, noting that the attack targeted Larsen’s own XRP addresses rather than Ripple’s corporate XRP accounts. Various Ripple members stated that fact in comments yesterday.
Teng acknowledged the correction, writing: “Appreciate [the] note on wording — to clarify, these were [Larsen’s] personal wallets that were exploited.”
Ripple is now responsible for investigation
Silkjaer said that the XRP Ledger Foundation has handed all data to Ripple, meaning that the latter is now responsible for leading the investigation.
Silkjaer also denied that on-chain sleuth ZachXBT played a significant role in responding to the incident. Whereas Teng said that ZachXBT flagged exchanges about the theft, Silkjær said that ZachXBT “carelessly published on social media” one day after the attack occurred and the investigation began.
Details of the attack are largely unknown. Ripple and associated parties have not posted further details since acknowledging the attack yesterday.
Though some sources have reported a drop in XRP prices, the token is up 0.5% over 24 hours. By comparison, the crypto market is up 0.7%.
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Author 
Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
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In this article
The XRP Ledger is a decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Ripple
Ripple is a US-based technology company which develops the Ripple payment protocol and exchange network using XRP, the digital asset native to the XRP Ledger.
Richard Teng, a veteran in the financial services and regulatory sectors, boasts over three decades of extensive experience.
Chris Larsen stands as the Executive Chairman of Ripple’s board of directors, bringing a wealth of experience from his extensive career in financial technology.
ZachXBT is an independent on-chain sleuth who is popular on revealing bad actors in the crypto space.