Crypto: For CZ, banks are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than exchanges

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The attacks on banks are a reminder that the risk goes beyond cryptocurrencies and that no one is (yet) safe from new technologies.

According to its preliminary investigation, Binance suffered the compromise of a DevOps engineer's computer. The attacker then allegedly accessed an internal service to submit unauthorized withdrawals. The platform indicates that it has not detected any private key leaks and promises a technical report when the facts are verified.

The exchange announces that it will cover the losses with its SAFU emergency fund and its own resources. This financial capacity protects customers against the consequences of theft, but does not demonstrate that the infrastructure was sufficiently secure.

The same distinction applies to Bybit. After the theft of approximately $1.5 billion in February 2025, replenishing reserves did not mean recovering the stolen assets. A rapid reimbursement and an investigation lasting several years may therefore concern the same incident.

The transparency of block chains nevertheless provides a useful tool: investigators can follow part of the movements. But identifying an address is not enough to know its owner or regain control of its funds.

In February 2016, hackers used the accesses of the Central Bank of Bangladesh to issue fraudulent orders from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 81 million dollars joined the Philippine s. A typo notably contributed to blocking another transfer of 20 million to Sri Lanka; it does not alone explain the cessation of the operation.

In November 2023, a ransomware attack also paralyzed the American subsidiary of ICBC. To continue certain operations, its teams transported information on USB keys. Unsettled transactions temporarily created a debt of nine billion dollars to BNY Mellon, leading the parent company to provide capital.

Banking protections must also be described precisely. In the United States, FDIC insurance covers the failure of an insured establishment, not directly losses related to hacking or fraud.

CZ thus places the debate on security on the scale of all finance, faced with attacks that AI can accelerate. His call to strengthen protections concerns both banks and exchanges. However, it is not enough to demonstrate the superiority of the latter, when Binance itself has just suffered a theft of 6.3 billion dollars.

An editorial article. Le Journal du Coin, the first French-speaking news media on cryptocurrency, , and protocols.

Machine-translated from French