Hackers Sat Inside Binance's Systems for Weeks Before $6.3B Heist, SEAL Researcher Says

Taylor Monahan, a researcher at the crypto security outfit SEAL, joined CoinDesk's Policy Protocol podcast this week alongside hosts Renato Mariotti and Rebecca Rettig to take apart the $6.3B Binance hack, per CoinDesk. Her read on the criminals: this was no smash-and-grab. “These are sophisticated heists,” she said. “They're sitting in the systems for weeks and weeks and weeks.”

The episode asks the question everyone in the room wanted answered: could any rulebook have stopped it? The panel also dug into why crypto keeps drawing these attackers, and why banks could be next on the list. Attribution for the $6.3B figure and the podcast's framing goes to CoinDesk.

Then came the cleanup. Monahan walked through the industry's scramble to freeze stolen funds, including the roles played by Tether and Circle in an effort that stretched across the sector. The conversation also touched a thornier question — why federal authorities want the power to freeze funds without a court order first.

Another thread: the humans behind the keyboards. The panel covered how fake IT workers slip through hiring processes, and what it takes to keep North Korean IT workers out of crypto companies in the first place.

The episode opened with a broader policy sweep, including the CFTC's approval of stock perpetuals and the midterm-era guessing game over whether the CLARITY Act is dead or merely sleeping, with a lame-duck revival floated. ZachXBT closed it out as Person of the Week.