Binance freezes funds after $6.3bn hack
Crypto giant Binance attempting to recover $6.3bn stolen in hack linked to North Korea
Sunday, 1 November 2026
Photo by Pierre Borthiry - Peiobty on Unsplash
Warm-up
- Have you used a cryptocurrency app? What for?
- What online safety steps do you usually take?
- What makes you trust a financial company?
Vocabulary
- hack
- Illegal entry into a computer system to steal information or money.
- exchange
- A platform where people buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
- freeze
- To stop money or assets from being moved.
- asset
- Something valuable owned, such as money, shares or crypto tokens.
- recover
- To get back something lost or stolen.
- hacker
- A person who breaks into computer systems.
- lawsuit
- A legal case taken to a court to solve a dispute.
- collapse
- A sudden failure of a company or system.
Reading
Listen to this story
British EnglishBinance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, says a "complex" hack accessed $6.3bn in digital assets. The company has frozen around half and is trying to recover the rest with help from US agencies, including the Secret Service and the FBI. Investigators have been working around the clock to trace funds. Several analytics firms, such as TRM Labs and Chainalysis, have linked the breach to a North Korean unit known as Lazarus, and say unidentified hackers still hold many assets.
Binance told users their money is safe and said it has set aside more than $6.34bn to cover losses. Some US-linked assets, including stablecoins Tether and Circle, were involved.
Markets reacted: Bitcoin fell about 5% to $76,800, while shares in Coinbase and Robinhood also dropped. Experts warned the promise may not be legally binding and said customers might need a lawsuit. Some compared the reassurances to messages before the FTX collapse in 2022.
Comprehension
- How much money did the hack access, according to Binance?
- What share of the stolen assets has Binance frozen?
- Which US agencies are helping Binance investigate?
- Who do several firms link the hack to?
- How did markets react after the news?
Grammar focus
Present perfect continuous
Use have/has been + verb-ing for an action that began before now and is still continuing or feels recent. Signals: for + time, since + point, all day/week, lately. (Example 2 constructed.)
- Investigators have been working around the clock to trace funds.
- Analysts have been linking addresses since the breach.
Grammar exercise
Complete each sentence with the present perfect continuous form.
- Markets (react) ___ nervously since the breach.
- Experts (warn) ___ about scams all week.
- A user (monitor) ___ a wallet balance all morning.
- Analytics firms (share) ___ updates lately.
- Agencies (coordinate) ___ with exchanges since then.
Discussion
- Are cryptocurrencies safe for ordinary users? Why or why not?
- Should exchanges cover all customer losses after a hack?
- How much should governments investigate global crypto hacks?
- What steps could make crypto platforms more trustworthy?
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