Binance appointed Justin Yek as its new chief financial officer as the cryptocurrency exchange navigated the aftermath of a security breach that compromised approximately $6.3 billion in digital assets.
Kaiser Ng, who served as chief financial officer since January 2022, is leaving the company after more than five years, according to Bloomberg. Binance co-Chief Executive Officer Yi He stated that a transition plan had been implemented over the previous six months.
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The security incident occurred on October 29, 2026, when hackers transferred funds out of Binance wallets across ten blockchains during an intensive phase lasting approximately twenty minutes, as reported by TRM Labs. Analysts and investigators attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean state-sponsored hacking unit.
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng told FOX Business that customers would not bear any losses resulting from the breach. The exchange reported that it had replenished 98% of the affected token assets from its reserves.
Binance Founder, CZ, issues big WARNING. "If a crypto exchange can be hacked, banks are in a worse position." "This is not just a #crypto problem. This is actually a much wider information security problem." pic.twitter.com/57NDwNY4Um
Law Enforcement and industry partners cooperated to freeze approximately $2.85 billion in affected assets. TRM Labs confirmed on-chain freezes involving RLUSD and USD1 tokens with support from organizations including World Liberty Financial and the Arbitrum Security Council.
Binance disclosed that the breach began with a supply chain attack targeting an engineer from the wallet DevOps team. The employee downloaded a trojanized Homebrew installer after searching for a popular artificial intelligence tool on an internet search engine, according to The Hacker News.
A second phase took place when a threat actor contacted another engineer via a recruitment platform while disguised as a project director. The communication involved a fake job interview and a malicious software assignment that executed unauthorized commands.
On October 20, 2026, the adversary used the compromised computer and an internal artificial intelligence tool to gain control over additional wallet software engineers. The attackers subsequently accessed container deployment permission tokens and executed transactions that drained hot wallets across multiple networks.
Binance's initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. We have found no evidence of any wallet private… pic.twitter.com/5REncAI77y
Justin Yek assumed the role of chief financial officer following his position as vice president of finance at Airwallex, with prior experience at Morgan Stanley and Citi. Founder Changpeng Zhao and co-CEO Yi He managed operations during the leadership transition.
Yek stated that he looked forward to leading the finance organization as the firm continues to scale globally and strengthen its security posture. Binance announced that it is expanding its AI-powered threat detection capabilities while continuing to trace the remaining stolen funds.
Investigation update: Our initial investigation suggested that the security incident may have involved a compromised laptop, however our subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach. This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination… pic.twitter.com/FQQ3vKT6GU
Earlier coverage: Binance Replaces CFO Following Cyberattack
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Join Binance Co-CEOs @_RichardTeng and @heyibinance, alongside Chief Security Officer Jimmy Su, for a fireside chat. Moderated by @jessicasmw. 🗓️ November 9, 2026 🕛 12:00 UTC 📍 X Spaces Set your reminder → https://t.co/z4ldPDIuYl pic.twitter.com/F8ymkZsf9N
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