Binance has appointed Justin Yek as its new chief financial officer, replacing Kaiser Ng, who is stepping down after more than five years with the exchange. The leadership change follows a massive security breach in which hackers stole approximately $6.3 billion in digital assets from the platform.
Justin Yek takes over financial operations
Yek joins Binance from Airwallex, where he served as vice president of finance. His professional background includes experience at Morgan Stanley, where he led technology investment banking for Southeast Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile.
https://t.co/sU9dUqLQDH
Binance co-CEO Yi He confirmed Ng’s departure in a statement, noting that the transition had been planned for the last six months.
Kaiser Ng has decided to pursue a new venture after more than five years at Binance, with a transition plan implemented over the last half year,
Yi He, Binance co-CEO
Yi He added, We wish him the best in his next chapter,
according to Aol.
🔥 LATEST: TRM Labs says it's time to hack North Korea back. The $6.3B Binance theft was roughly a third of North Korea's GDP, and TRM's Ari Redbord says the Lazarus-style raids won't stop as long as they keep paying off. "This is cyber war."https://t.co/bZxAinjRrg
Binance absorbs $6.3 billion loss
The exchange has committed to making customers whole at its own expense following the October 29 attack. To cover the roughly $6 billion loss, Binance utilized money from three internal sources: its own corporate treasury, its futures insurance fund, and half of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU). Ainvest reports the company has reported it was able to cover the $6.3 billion hole with its own funds and has committed to rebuilding SAFU toward its $1 billion target.
The scale of the breach is significant when compared to the company’s estimated earnings. Ainvest notes that while Binance’s pre-tax profit from 2021 through 2025 was roughly $19.2 billion, its known fines and hack losses over that same span total about $10.7 billion. This represents 56 percent of those profits. The breakdown of these costs includes $4.34 billion in fines—led by a $4.32 billion U.S. criminal settlement in 2023—and $6.38 billion in stolen funds spanning a 2019 theft and the current breach.
Binance hack update: the XRP has started moving. About $50 million has been swapped, mostly through THORChain into BTC, with about $226 million still to move. Bitcoin converted from other stolen assets is now about 1,650 BTC ($124 million), almost twice the figure a day earlier.…
TraderTraitor used malware to target Binance wallet engineers
The attack, which Binance said unfolded on October 29, was a sophisticated campaign that lasted several months. Cryptotimes reports that starting in June, attackers used malware in software downloads and fake job interviews to target three of the exchange’s wallet engineers. By September, they had gained access to stolen employee credentials, allowing them to reach an internal wallet-signing service and move funds from a hot wallet.
The theft involved 167,464 ETH and 63 other tokens. The FBI and TRM Labs have attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-linked hacking group, though North Korea has denied the accusation. Euronext reports that Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals at 22:15 UTC on October 29.
Industry players froze billions in stolen funds
Following the breach, several industry players moved to freeze assets. Cryptotimes reports that Tether, Circle, and World Liberty Financial used stablecoin freeze mechanisms to block approximately $3 billion, while the Arbitrum Security Council froze $30.5 million. Ainvest notes that about $3 billion of the stolen funds has already been frozen on-chain.
Market activity stabilized after the exchange reopened withdrawals on November 1. Ainvest reports that while customers pulled out a net $4.72 billion—roughly 3 percent of platform assets—$2.7 billion flowed back in.
A $6.3 billion Binance hack and AI-assisted discoveries of software vulnerabilities made headlines last week. @ACGeoEcon’s @jpscasteras outlines how financial institutions and policymakers should respond:https://t.co/dFmxBtNMjk
<!– wp:table class="wp-block-table">
| Metric | Value/Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total Estimated Hack Loss | ~$6.3 billion | Cryptotimes |
| Funds Frozen via Stablecoins | ~$3 billion | Cryptotimes |
| Net Withdrawals (Nov 1) | $4.72 billion | Ainvest |
| Net Inflows (Nov 1) | $2.7 billion | Ainvest |
/wp:table –>
Kaiser Ng has served as CFO at Binance since January 2022, according to Reuters.
The FBI formally blamed Pyongyang for a $6.3 billion hack of the Binance exchange at the end of October — the largest theft in the history of cryptocurrency. Details here from @afixler & @MatJunsuk: https://t.co/NYL0xvfzz4