Binance froze stolen from the Upbit 137 ETH exchange

Binance stopped the attempt of hackers who hacked the Upbit exchange to launder the stolen ETH and froze them.Changpeng Zhaoreported that 137 ETH will be returned to Upbit.

Wednesday, May 13, at about 19 Moscow timeThe Whale Alert service reported on Twitter that 137 ETH, equivalent to $ 27,000 at the current exchange rate, had been transferred to the Binance exchange from an address associated with last year's hacked Upbit exchange hackers.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao(Changpeng Zhao) soon tweeted that the coins transferred by hackers are frozen and will soon be returned to Upbit. A little more than half an hour passed between the transfer of ETH to the exchange and their freezing.

Wallet addresses related to hacking exchangescryptocurrencies and other sites receive a special mark, and exchanges usually freeze any assets coming from these addresses. In January 2019, Binance froze funds related to hacking the Cryptopia exchange.

Over the past day, criminals breaking into Upbitmoved 3,650 ETH between wallets to cover up tracks and prepare coins for withdrawal through exchanges. A Uppsala report earlier this year noted that hackers could already launder ETHs equivalent to $ 3.2 million by withdrawing small amounts from exchanges so as not to arouse suspicion.

It is unclear what was the motive of the hackers to sendthe last batch of ETH at Binance. This is a small amount, given that in November last year, attackers managed to steal cryptocurrencies worth $ 49 million. It can be assumed that hackers checked the response time of the exchange in order to understand whether large amounts could be withdrawn discreetly.

Last week, the Whale Alert service reported thatThe ethers stolen from the Upbit exchange again set in motion - hackers moved 1 897 ETH to an unknown address. A total of 342,000 ETH was stolen from the Upbit exchange, with 55,000 ETH transferred to an unknown address a week after the hack.

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