In possibly the largest heist ever, over $6 billion was stolen from Binance late last week.

More than $3 billion of the cyrpto coin, Ethereum, was stolen. Ethereum (like Bitcoin) can’t be frozen by a central authority. Once stolen, the coin can be moved around freely.

Tether and Circle froze around $2 billion of “stable coins” hours after they were stolen, preventing the robbers/hackers from moving that money out of their digital wallets. They were able to freeze the currency faster than traditional bank fraud detection methods.

From their inception, crypto-currency evangelists have promised an alternative to central banks and fiat currency issued by the state. Crypto idealists tout digital currency as a way to empower individuals and circumvent government control.

This hack shows a consequence of those ideals: not being able to secure your currency; the stolen Etheruem likely went to North Korea. For Tether and Circle, the hack shows how rather than circumventing control, crypto can enable a level of (company) control over currency that might even surpass the abilities of central banks and states.

What do you think?

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