Binance: The inside story of the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchange

NEW YORK—Not too long ago, I was shacked up in a cheap hostel, in Manhattan. The window was open to counteract the heat of the stiff radiator, which couldn’t be turned off on a hot day in May. My colleague was nowhere to be seen and I’d just received a shocking message about Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world.

That afternoon, the exchange had been hacked. It had lost 7,000 bitcoin, which was then worth a staggering $40 million.

Crypto exchange hacks are all too common in this world. There have been hundreds of such thefts, with that swindle taking the total of all money lost at all crypto exchanges to $1.35 billion. Until now, Binance had withstood the barrels of attacks, but this sudden breach triggered it to effectively shut up shop for an entire week—an eternity in crypto. And though Binance offhandedly covered the $40 million out of its rainy-day fund, the damage to its reputation had already been done.

“At that moment, I was truly shaken. It was from…