Binance Co-Founder Clashes With Elon Musk Over Exchange Hack
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, publicly called out Elon Musk on Friday after the billionaire appeared to mock the cryptocurrency exchange following a $6.4 billion hack, the largest in history. Zhao reminded Musk that Binance holds SpaceX shares valued at over $1 billion.
A Tense Exchange on X
“Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop,” CZ wrote on the social media platform X. He added, “Our SPCX shares (from our $500m investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion. Would appreciate if you show a little support. Thanks!”
This exchange followed Musk’s reaction to a post that estimated Binance’s losses from the hack could reach around $1 billion, despite the company holding approximately $144 billion in assets under custody. The stolen funds have largely been frozen.
Musk had responded to the discussion with a grimacing emoji. This prompted another user to share an old post from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who had claimed his exchange had sufficient funds to cover its losses, a statement that proved tragically ironic as FTX famously collapsed weeks later.
CZ initially addressed the loss estimate by acknowledging the damage might be slightly higher but asserting that Binance would still be able to cover it. Musk’s emoji, however, seemed to draw an uncomfortable parallel with the FTX episode, though he offered no further explanation.
Binance co-CEO Yi He also weighed in, addressing CZ in a post that seemed to respond to suggestions that the company might need to liquidate its SpaceX holdings. “Reporting to the major shareholder: Our company’s revenue for the year is sufficient to cover the losses, so we do not yet need to sell the SpaceX shares you are bullish on,” she wrote, accompanied by a shrugging emoji.
CZ later clarified that he had not suggested selling the shares. He explained that he was merely illustrating some of the funds Binance possessed, hoping to reassure Musk about the exchange’s financial stability.
The Record-Breaking Hack
The public dispute unfolds as Binance grapples with the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. On Thursday, October 29, at least $6.4 billion in crypto was siphoned from wallets associated with the exchange across multiple blockchains.
Initial reports from the previous day indicated that at least $5.57 billion had been moved from Binance-linked wallets on Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron. The attackers executed the theft through numerous transactions, including a transfer of over $1.6 billion in USDT to a newly created Ethereum address.
The incident also highlighted a significant vulnerability in cryptocurrency recovery following a theft. Tether and Circle, the issuers of USDT and USDC stablecoins respectively, initially froze approximately $1.8 billion in assets linked to the attackers, later expanding the freeze to a total of $2.39 billion. However, unlike these stablecoins, Ethereum cannot be frozen by a central authority, making it more challenging to intercept stolen funds once they are converted.
The suspected attackers subsequently utilized decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and the lending protocol Aave to move funds into Ethereum. These platforms enable users to trade or borrow cryptocurrency without the need for a traditional intermediary to approve each transaction. Wallet tracking services observed tens of thousands of ETH being moved through these operations, including 19,762 ETH borrowed against roughly $60 million in USDT.
North Korean Link Suspected
Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis, in a report released Friday, attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group previously implicated in the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025. Chainalysis estimated the total value of the Binance theft at approximately $6.4 billion.
Binance has since stated that it has allocated over $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the incident. This includes $5 billion already held in the same tokens that were stolen. The exchange is reportedly acquiring the remaining assets through market and over-the-counter purchases, a process that can be prolonged when certain tokens have limited liquidity.
