Binance shared a recent update stating it successfully protected its users from massive losses over the first seven months of 2024. Malicious attacks by scammers could have affected over 1.2 million users and caused a loss of about $2.4 billion.
The Binance AI Hybrid Solution
According to Richard Teng, Binance CEO, the exchange employed a hybrid solution to detect suspicious transactions. Upon noticing such transactions, it utilized both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and manual reviews. They did this to act quickly and to safeguard users on the platform from financial losses.
Notably, Binance’s hybrid solution tracks all financial transactions in real-time as part of its internal risk management system.
This resulted in the flagging and detection of over $1.1 billion in suspicious transactions at the point of withdrawals. This amount accounts for 45% of the possible losses users might have suffered had the malicious attacks evaded Binance’s internal AI fraud detection mechanism.
Strengthening Defenses Against Evolving Crypto Threats
In the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, hackers have remained a menace to users. These malicious actors employ various methods, including phishing, impersonation, and other techniques, to compromise users’ wallets. Exchanges are also a very rich target for these scammers.
Binance says that by leveraging AI, it has been able to employ a multilayered security system on its platform. This greatly eliminates exposure to fraudulent attacks. The system monitors real-time payments initiated by users, peer-to-peer trading, and crypto network withdrawals. The goal is to safeguard each step of transactions on the exchange.
Besides this approach, Binance has other scam prevention tools, such as customized wake-up calls, pop-up notifications, and cooldown features. Meanwhile, in cases where a transaction has been flagged as potentially suspicious, users have different channels for seamlessly resolving the issues and reclaiming their funds.
Available data reveals that the exchange has successfully secured over $70 million of lost funds belonging to third parties. Binance recently stated that some fraudulent funds that made their way into the exchange were frozen. The crypto trading platform recorded a significant percentage of these funds.
According to the exchange’s estimates, approximately 80% of such funds were the proceeds of theft, hacks, or exploits occurring outside the Binance platform. This lends credence to Binance’s safety measures to protect its users.
High-Profile Scams and the Role of Binance In Security Safeguard
In 2024 alone, some crypto scams shocked ecosystem stakeholders. Notably, India’s largest exchange, WazirX was attacked, resulting in the loss of about $234 million in different cryptocurrencies from its multi-sig wallet.
The hackers moved the stolen funds to a new address and commenced converting different assets, such as SHIB, PEPE, and USDT, into Ethereum.
Meanwhile, Binance has assisted the authorities in the past in recovering €11.4 million in assets linked to ZKasino, a crypto-based online gambling platform. ZKasino had trapped funds belonging to users, but the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service of the Netherlands (FIOD) collaborated with a branch of Binance to secure the funds.
Similarly, in 2022, Binance facilitated the recovery of $5.8 million in crypto linked to the Ronin Bridge scam.
