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President Trump said on Friday his administration was "looking at" the Binance hack.
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Trump acknowledged that Binance has "it pretty much under control."
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He said he has always felt digital money was "a little bit dangerous" because "people never see the money anymore."
President Donald Trump said that Binance (BNB) told officials it had the fallout from its multibillion-dollar hack "pretty much under control," while saying that he long felt that digital money was "a little bit dangerous."
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump was asked whether the hack should be tied to a North Korean hacker group. "We're looking at that," he said. Trump added that Binance had pledged to make users whole. "They say they're going to get it back. They're saying they're guaranteeing it or something," he said.
He then pointed to the risks. He compared crypto with traditional payments, such as signing a check. "People never see the money anymore," he said, adding that he had always felt it was "a little bit dangerous." Still, he said, "they say they have it pretty much under control."
Trump also told reporters in the Oval Office that authorities are not sure if North Korea was behind it, but said officials are investigating.
Despite the hack, Binance Coin's price, the native token of BNB Chain, traded relatively flat over the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BNB moved to 'bearish' from 'bullish' zones, while chatter around it stayed at 'high' levels over the past day.
What Happened
Binance was hit by a hack on Thursday, with losses reported over $6 billion . Blockchain investigators ZachXBT, Blockaid and TRM Labs had said North Korea was likely behind the attack. The exchange said it had reserved more than $6.34 billion of company funds to cover users' losses. It is also working to recover about $3 billion in frozen assets.
Why North Korean Hackers Are Different From Others
TRM Lab's Global Head of Policy Ari Redbord said on the Bankless podcast that North Korean hackers " don't really care if [they] lose some [money] here or there." Redbord added that "They lost a lot last night, but they also made off with, arguably, what would in and of itself be the largest hack ever by 2x, right?". According to him the hackers "care a lot less about getting caught because no one's going to jail. There's never going to be an extradition, and there's likely not going to be a criminal prosecution of any kind."
The breach rattled crypto markets, as more than $1.6 billion in leveraged bets were wiped out, and Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a six-week low near $77,300. Following this, the CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said that "the blockchain gives us a very good shot" at tracking the stolen funds.
Not Binance's First Breach
Binance has been hit by major attacks before, when in October 2022, an attacker exploited a bridge on BNB Chain and minted about 2 million BNB, worth roughly $570 million at the time. Then in May 2019, hackers stole about 7,000 Bitcoin, then worth roughly $40 million, from the exchange's hot wallet. Binance covered the losses from its emergency fund.
At more than $6 billion, Thursday's hack is the largest hacks on the chain, followed by ByBit hack, where $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) was stolen by North Korea's Lazarus Group.
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.
Anushka Basu has no position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. StockTwits' news team content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. For more, see our editorial policy . This article was originally published on StockTwits .
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