Updated at 5.35pm

Hackers broke into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance and stole more than €35 million worth of bitcoin on Monday.

The company, which in March 2018 had announced that it was setting up shop in Malta, confirmed a “large scale” data breach had taken place and said hackers stole API keys, two-factor authentication codes and other information.

It said hackers had managed to steal more than 7,000 bitcoins in a single transaction, moving them out of the company’s ‘hot’ wallet. 

“All of our other wallets are secure and unharmed,” the company said.
No user funds would be affected, with losses covered by a secure asset fund created for such eventualities.

Sources told Times of Malta that hackers had broken into Binance systems which were set up and run in a different jurisdiction, not Malta. 

"The Malta-based company is still in the process of being set up," they said. "It currently has no customers."

Binance said it had halted all withdrawals and deposits as it worked to identify weaknesses in its systems and resolve them. It said that it expects normal service to resume in one week.  

Users will however be able to continue trading cryptocurrencies within the exchange during that time, though Binance also included a caveat: 

"Please also understand that the hackers may still control certain user accounts and may use those to influence prices in the meantime. We will monitor the situation closely. But we believe with withdrawals disabled, there isn’t much incentive for hackers to influence markets," they said.