Binance CEO CZ Reports Kidnapping of a Client and Recovery of Millions of Dollars in Stolen Crypto

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, stated in his statement that the executives of a client company they worked with were kidnapped in Montenegro and their cryptocurrency accounts were emptied.

According to CZ, the executives' total losses were $12.5 million.

In his statement, CZ stated that the onchain activities of the attackers were monitored and that action was taken to freeze the wallets held by the attackers by working with other cryptocurrency exchanges. All of the stolen funds were in the form of USDT and were transferred to a Tron wallet following the theft.

Binance CEO announced that they managed to freeze $11.8 million of the stolen $12.5 million crypto money.

However, a member of the cryptocurrency community questioned how Binance could freeze these funds despite the fact that cryptocurrencies are marketed as not being confiscable by third parties.

Cryptocurrency assets offer the promise that people cannot have their real-world assets frozen by any third party, as opposed to the risk of their real-world assets being frozen by banks.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao responded to this criticism and said that the whole thing is a matter of balance. Stating that there is no perfect balance point, CZ implied that a solution to events such as theft cannot be found in a system that cannot be completely frozen.

However, CZ stated that if users use privacy coins such as Monero (XMR), such freezes will not occur, but the stolen funds cannot be returned. Additionally, he said that Bitcoin can also be tracked but cannot be frozen unless it is transferred to central exchanges.

*This is not investment advice.