- U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the CLARITY Act could have given crypto companies legal protection to freeze suspicious transactions at law enforcement’s request.
- Binance said it would restore withdrawals in stages, publish a new Proof of Reserves report by Nov. 2 and release a technical report on the attack.
- Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan attributed the Binance, Bybit and Bitget hacks to operational security failures that enabled unauthorized transaction signing.
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis cited the Oct. 29 Binance hack to argue that the CLARITY Act could have provided crypto companies with legal protection to freeze suspicious transactions immediately at law enforcement’s request. Attackers compromised Binance’s hot wallets and withdrew tokens worth about $6.3 billion, according to the exchange.
“Yesterday, hackers stole more than $6 billion from Binance in less than 4 hours, the biggest heist in history. The Clarity Act would have given crypto firms legal cover to freeze suspicious transactions the instant law enforcement calls. Every minute lost is money gone for good,” Lummis said.
The CLARITY bill was intended to define rules for regulating digital assets in the United States but failed in the U.S. Senate. Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor previously proposed a different path for the crypto market after the bill’s failure.
Binance outlines recovery measures
Binance said it would cover all losses using its own funds and the SAFU fund. The exchange has set aside more than $6.34 billion, including $5 billion represented by the affected tokens themselves. Partners also helped freeze roughly $3 billion in assets.
In its second update, Binance said it planned to begin restoring withdrawals in stages about 34 hours after the statement was published, provided it completed its security checks. The exchange also said it would prepare a new Proof of Reserves report by Nov. 2 and publish a technical report detailing the investigation’s findings.
Analytics service Lookonchain said Binance was buying back the stolen assets through market channels and over-the-counter deals. It reported that Ethena transferred 128.63 million ENA, worth about $24 million, to Binance during the previous eight hours. The transfer itself does not confirm that the tokens were sent to compensate for the exchange’s losses.
Lookonchain published the claim in an Oct. 31 post.
Blockaid points to operational security failures
Blockaid co-founder and CEO Ido Ben-Natan said on CNBC that the Binance, Bybit and Bitget hacks were linked to operational security issues that led to unauthorized transaction signing.
Ben-Natan estimated losses from the attacks at $6.3 billion for Binance, $1.5 billion for Bybit and $350 million for Bitget.
Source: Incrypted
