Binance denies Korean media reports about its slow response to the Upbit hacking incident

Binance denied reports from South Korean media regarding its slow response to the hacking of Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency platform in South Korea. A Binance spokesperson stated, "The Binance security and investigation team discovered this incident and immediately took action to assist in freezing the relevant transfers to prevent further loss of funds. Therefore, any claims that we did not take timely and effective measures are baseless and inaccurate."

Earlier today, South Korean media KBS reported that Binance received a request from the Korean police to freeze the cryptocurrency assets stolen from Upbit by hackers, but ultimately only assisted in freezing a portion of them. After confirming the flow of some stolen funds to Binance on the day of the incident, the Korean police requested Binance to freeze approximately 470 million Korean won worth of Solana tokens. However, Binance only froze 17% of the requested amount (about 80 million Korean won), citing "the need for further verification of the facts," and it took about 15 hours to complete the freeze and notify. An Upbit spokesperson stated that they could not comment on the events reported by KBS but emphasized that local law enforcement is "actively investigating" to determine the identity of the attackers. On November 27, Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, disclosed that it detected abnormal withdrawal activities, with approximately 54 billion Korean won (about 36 million USD) worth of Solana network-related digital assets being transferred to an unknown external wallet address.