Crypto exchanges call for quick moves to bolster defences after Binance heist

Dawn reported that crypto exchange Binance suffered a $6.3 billion hack, prompting rival platforms to tighten security and call for faster information-sharing. Coinbase changed safeguards around offline crypto-key storage, while Kraken said it was reviewing incidents for lessons to strengthen its own systems. Binance halted withdrawals and said company funds would cover the losses.

The attack may have involved access through a compromised software engineer’s laptop, according to Binance co-CEO Richard Teng. Tether froze nearly $1.57bn linked to the breach and Circle froze $800 million, while Bitcoin and ether fell on Thursday before recovering some losses the next day. Executives said Binance could absorb the impact, and OKX’s chief called for a shared alert system to help exchanges coordinate responses.