As a roughly US$6.3 billion hack at Binance came to light, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) answered a post by Elon Musk on X by saying it was a 'bad time to troll' and pointing to Binance's SpaceX shares, TipRanks and others reported. Some critics drew comparisons with FTX, but Binance says it will cover the losses from its own funds.
According to TipRanks and CaptainAltcoin, about US$6.3 billion was stolen from Binance on October 29. Binance froze roughly US$3 billion and paused customer withdrawals, and TipRanks said it expects to reopen withdrawals within 48 hours, followed by a public reserve audit. TipRanks described the attackers as North Korea-linked but did not cite a source for that, while CaptainAltcoin did not identify the attackers.
광고 문의 · 300×250Markets were shaken right after the news. TipRanks reported more than US$628 million in liquidations within an hour, while CaptainAltcoin said bitcoin dropped about 5% at one point and over US$1 billion in long positions were liquidated. UDN, citing market reports, said bitcoin fell below US$77,000 on October 30.
Musk's post and Zhao's reply
TipRanks said Musk posted 'Everyday is Zeroday' with fire and laughing emojis beneath a CZ post warning people about email links. CaptainAltcoin, however, said only that Musk reacted with a grimacing emoji, so accounts differ. Whether Musk himself said Binance could follow FTX could not be confirmed for this report.
CZ replied to Musk, according to TipRanks: 'Have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop.' He said the SpaceX shares Binance holds through its US$500 million investment in Musk's 2022 Twitter buyout are worth more than US$1 billion, that the gap is about US$2 billion, and that the SAFU fund, holding about US$1.17 billion in bitcoin, together with the SpaceX stake could cover much of it.
The FTX comparison and the SpaceX stake
Binance co-CEO Yi He said annual revenue is enough to cover the losses, so the company does not need to sell its SpaceX shares for now. TipRanks said some critics likened CZ's assurances to statements by Sam Bankman-Fried shortly before FTX collapsed in 2022. CaptainAltcoin argued that FTX failed because customer funds were diverted and withdrawals could not be met, that this case is a security breach, and that the market has not treated Binance like FTX.
TipRanks reported that SpaceX bought xAI in February and listed on Nasdaq in June at US$135 a share. The last general lockup batch unlocks on December 8, while some large investors are locked up into 2027; which group includes Binance's stake has not been disclosed. SpaceX shares fell nearly 10% in the week to October 28 as about 1.6 billion newly unlocked shares became eligible for sale. This article is compiled from published reports, and the facts may change.