[2018-03-07] Binance is accidentally selling users’ cryptocurrency for Bitcoin

[CryptoGains]

Numerous concerned users have taken to Reddit to complain that popular cryptocurrency exchange desk Binance has suddenly begun to sell their altcoins at market rate – without their consent and without any notification whatsoever.

“WTF is happening,” one user cried out. “Binance just sold all my [altcoins] at market rate,” the customer continued, adding that all of his coins were now converted to Bitcoin.

“It is true,” another user wrote. “It happened to my account. All my [altcoins] were sold and all I have is Bitcoin now.” The user went on to clarify that his two-factor authentication was enabled and there were no signs his account was compromised.

A spokesperson for the company has since confirmed it is investigating the issue on Reddit. “We are investigating reports of some users having issues with their funds,” the Binance support rep wrote. “Our team is aware and investigating the issue as we speak. Please remain patient and we will provide an update as quickly as possible.”

The exchange desk hasn’t yet mentioned anything about this investigation on its official Twitter account, but numerous users are already chattering about it:

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/03/07/binance-accidentally-selling-users-cryptocurrency-bitcoin/

[Domenc]

Upon reading this news, just checked my Binance account it seems to be pretty normal out there. Currently, there is no evidence regarding particular hack on exchange this might be hinted towards a bug or technical error in the system. Furthermore Binance is thoroughly replying and giving active support on customer care and everything might be resolved in the next coming hours totally.

[Diced90]

How the hell does binance expect its users to stay calm when no notifications of some sort have been sent out
if the hodlers wished they would have sold their altcoins for bitcoin long ago but without anyone's consent this is bad rep for the company, hope they come clean on this and reassure the  binance users that this won't happen again.

[darkangel11]

There are 2 possible explanations. Either this is an attempt to cause panic among the users of the exchange or it's an attack from the inside. I find it very odd that only a handful of users have experienced a problem and that their funds are not gone but were sold for BTC and are still on their accounts. It's most likely not a real breach from the outside or it would've been a much bigger deal. I wonder why so many people sold after reading about it. I saw a dump of around 8k BTC happen on Bitfinex within minutes. People are stupid.

[vit05]

  Then they used the API keys of certain users, they sold everything, they pump a coin and tried to withdraw from the exchange, without success. The risk of using external APIs and using Bots is becoming increasingly clear.

Binance
#VIA - Unusual buying activity :arrow_right: (https://www.binance.com/trade.html?symbol=VIA_BTC)
3151.37 BTC in 1 minute (1388%)
B: 0.00026370 :sparkle: (0.57%)
A: 0.02500000 :sparkle: (9412.94%)
24H Vol: 3378.48 BTC
Last signal: 6 hours ago (6/7D)

Potential hacker profit of over 3 thousand bitcoin.

Regarding the recent security issue with Binance, the alleged hackers cashed out by setting extremely high sell orders on Viacoin and funneling money through compromised API keys.

This led to a price jump of almost more than 100x within just a matter of minutes.

This comes to light right after Japan announces they will be shutting down certain exchanges in regards to cyber-security. Where the Binance servers are currently located.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-japan/japan-to-punish-several-cryptocurrency-exchanges-sources-idUSKCN1GJ1AE

[francoise]

"accidentally selling"?? Is there a hack or program trading scam there? sound very weird to me.

[jjacob]

 Then they used the API keys of certain users, they sold everything, they pump a coin and tried to withdraw from the exchange, without success. The risk of using external APIs and using Bots is becoming increasingly clear.

Binance
#VIA - Unusual buying activity :arrow_right: (https://www.binance.com/trade.html?symbol=VIA_BTC)
3151.37 BTC in 1 minute (1388%)
B: 0.00026370 :sparkle: (0.57%)
A: 0.02500000 :sparkle: (9412.94%)
24H Vol: 3378.48 BTC
Last signal: 6 hours ago (6/7D)

This seems to be a possible motive, although it would have been pretty apparent when Binance started its investigations. Rather than pump a coin and then withdraw, I think hackers would try to dump a coin, accumulate it in their accounts and then try to withdraw it. People whose coins were sold might actually turn lucky, if the market value of alts tank.

[adrianto1995]

Numerous concerned users have taken to Reddit to complain that popular cryptocurrency exchange desk Binance has suddenly begun to sell their altcoins at market rate – without their consent and without any notification whatsoever.

“WTF is happening,” one user cried out. “Binance just sold all my [altcoins] at market rate,” the customer continued, adding that all of his coins were now converted to Bitcoin.

“It is true,” another user wrote. “It happened to my account. All my [altcoins] were sold and all I have is Bitcoin now.” The user went on to clarify that his two-factor authentication was enabled and there were no signs his account was compromised.

A spokesperson for the company has since confirmed it is investigating the issue on Reddit. “We are investigating reports of some users having issues with their funds,” the Binance support rep wrote. “Our team is aware and investigating the issue as we speak. Please remain patient and we will provide an update as quickly as possible.”

The exchange desk hasn’t yet mentioned anything about this investigation on its official Twitter account, but numerous users are already chattering about it:

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/03/07/binance-accidentally-selling-users-cryptocurrency-bitcoin/

ooohh that's weird...  

this is reason why i dont want to keep all my tokens/coins on exchanger. it's too risky, biggest exchanger like Binance can be hacked by unknown person too..
i prefer to keep all my coins/tokens on my private wallet...

[MissionPhailed]

Another clear example of why online exchanges should be avoided as much as possible. Somehow dodged the bullet myself multiple times in the last few years until I got sp00ked enough to withdraw all my funds from those exchanges. In the last year we've seen the disappearance of BTC-e.com, the Bittrex shenanigans with accounts being locked/disabled and now this with Binance. Might have forgotten a few more incidents.

[mintedstone]

I'd only trade in these exchanges, I'd not hold any coins there, simply too risky. They can go out of business any time.

[vit05]

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/971476396278099969

CZ (not giving crypto away)
‏
Verified account
 
@cz_binance
Following Following @cz_binance
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We have localized the irregular trades, they will be reversed.  All funds are safe, thanks to the fast alarm.  Please learn to secure your accounts against phishing.

[richardsNY]

Title should be -- Fools who gave third parties access to their API keys are now being trolled. After reading through all complaints, it's safe to say that this only affects people who have a third party access to their API keys. All other users are not affected, so it's time for people to admit their own mistake, and stop blaming Binance for something they didn't do. If you hand me over your Bitstamp API key for example, I can do the same to you as what is happening with Binance users now. It looks like people have been victim of malicious bots/apps/sites, which doesn't surprise me with how noob infested that exchange is. Binance just announced that all malicious trades will be reversed, so no one lost anything. Very swift and fair reaction, especially because it's not their own fault.

[123exo123]

This reminds me of the Cryptopia thingie. It's probably not the exchange's fault, but rather, the users who are hacked themselves.