Claims that the $6.3 billion Binance hack was an inside job are spreading on X while the exchange holds its reserve results until Monday, Nov. 2. Investigators point to an outside attacker, and none of the insider claims rest on hard evidence.
Critics on X are questioning whether the $6.3 billion Binance hack was an inside job, and the exchange's timing for its proof of reserves report is feeding the doubt. Bitcoin.com News stresses that none of the claims are backed by hard evidence.
Skeptics question the timing of the audit
In its Oct. 30 update, Binance said it had covered about 80% of the stolen assets and was still buying the remaining 20%. It planned an initial snapshot within 12 hours, with results ready by Monday, Nov. 2.
A proof-of-reserves report is meant to show that an exchange holds enough assets to back every customer balance. Critics argue that running it after the buyback hides how big the gap was in the first place.
Trader Financelancelot called the hack an inside job. Another individual alleged that Binance engineered a hack to cover a liquidity crisis, arguing that a single compromised laptop could not have signed transactions across ten blockchains in 20 minutes.
What the forensics show
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the theft to North Korea's Tradertraitor hacking group. According to TRM Labs: "We make this judgment with high confidence."
TRM also said a phishing explanation covers Ethereum and leaves the other chains unexplained. Its assessment is that the attacker likely gained control of Binance's hot wallet signing system, which could sign across chains.
Binance has since said it found additional breach points and saw no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. Co-CEO Richard Teng has said only Binance's own hot wallet was compromised and customer funds were unaffected.
Attribution is not settled, however. Elliptic said North Korea-linked actors were likely responsible, but that no government or law enforcement agency had yet confirmed it.
Monday's disclosures decide the debate
Binance has said withdrawals should start returning in phases within about 34 hours, followed by the reserves report and a full technical post-mortem. Those disclosures will decide whether the inside job talk fades or gains ground.
Source: Bitcoin News
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