On Thursday, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, saw more than $6 billion hacked from its system. Evidence pointed to North Korean hackers, who drained the accounts in a matter of minutes.
But what does a hacker do with billions of dollars in stolen crypto?
Perhaps no one on the planet is more qualified to discuss the hack than Ilya Lichtenstein, the notorious hacker who in 2023, alongside his wife, Heather Morgan, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $4.5 billion money-laundering scheme linked to the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. In 2024, Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison, but he was released early this January. He now says that he has switched sides and is working as a “white hat” hacker trying to stop cyberattacks.
