Binance Freezes $4.2 Million in XRP Linked to Ripple Co-Founder's Hack

In the latest update on the now-defunct X (former Twitter), Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, announced the successful freezing of $4.2 million worth of XRP tokens stolen in the hack that occurred earlier in the week. The new Binance CEO credited the achievement to collaboration with XRP Ledger developers and on-chain detective ZachXBT, who flagged red flags on associated wallet addresses and assisted in identifying relevant funds.

Binance’s team pledged ongoing support for Ripple in investigations and closely monitoring attacker wallets to ensure the recovery of the allegedly “stolen” project funds.

As reported by AZC.News on January 31, 2024, on-chain detective ZachXBT detected unusual transactions involving 213 million XRP tokens (approximately $112.5 million) on the XRP Ledger blockchain, raising suspicions of a hack. The funds were rapidly dispersed across various exchanges such as MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC.

The targeted wallet, labeled Ripple (50) and initiated in 2018, was linked to the Funding Ripple wallet and associated with Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.

Chris Larsen acknowledged the incident, clarifying that the affected funds were personal assets and unrelated to Ripple. This isn’t the first time the XRP Ledger network has been targeted; in 2019, hackers successfully attacked about 100 wallets on the GateHub cryptocurrency wallet service, pocketing $10 million.

Chart XRP

The news has partially reassured the cryptocurrency investor community, which holds a market capitalization of $27 billion, ranking it sixth in the market. In the last 24 hours, the price of XRP has increased by approximately 2%, recovering to levels before the hack information surfaced.

The 4-hour chart for the XRP/USDT pair on TradingView at 01:34 AM on February 3, 2024.