Elon Musk has drawn criticism from Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao after the Tesla making sarcastic comments about the cryptocurrency exchange’s $6.3 billion hack. Musk reacted to the incident with laughing and grimacing emojis on X, prompting Zhao to ask the billionaire to stop mocking the company and show some support.
The discussion also raised questions about how Binance plans to cover the money lost in the attack. He advised people against opening links or downloading attachments from emails, even when they appeared to come from someone they trusted. Musk responded to the warning with fire and laughing emojis. He later shared a grimacing emoji during a discussion about Binance’s ability to cover the losses. Zhao responded to the resurfaced security warning by saying he wished more people had followed his advice. However, he pointed out that the attack was more complicated than simply clicking a suspicious link. Binance’s initial investigation reportedly pointed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. Investigators are also examining other possible security breaches. “Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop,” he wrote.
The exchange between the two took place on Friday, October 30, after Binance suffered what has been described as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Around $3 billion in stolen crypto assets have been frozen so far, while Binance has promised to cover the confirmed losses. The exchange began after Zhao shared a security warning on October 28, a day before the Binance attack was disclosed.
After reports of the hack emerged, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO also posted, “Everyday is Zeroday” on X. “The hack is more complex than that, but all hacks generally have a compromised device (or algorithm) at some point,” Zhao wrote. Zhao directly addressed Musk on Friday, asking him to stop making jokes about the attack.
Zhao shared a rough calculation, pointing to approximately $3 billion in frozen assets and more than $1 billion in Binance’s Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU). He estimated the remaining gap at around $2 billion. Zhao later clarified that he had not suggested selling the shares.
However, Binance co-CEO Yi He said the company could cover the losses through its annual revenue without selling its SpaceX shares. “Reporting to the major shareholder: Our company’s revenue for the year is sufficient to cover the losses, so we do not yet need to sell the SpaceX shares you are bullish on,” she wrote.
