In the midst of the fallout from what is considered the largest hack on record, the co-founder of Binance Holdings, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, had yet another issue to deal with: the apparent trolling about the $6 billion incident by the world’s richest man.
Elon Musk appeared to taunt Zhao on his X platform, responding with a grimacing emoji to a post about Binance’s recovery from the breach. Zhao was less amused: “Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop.”
Zhao then pointed to an apparent financial tie to Musk, adding: “Our SPCX shares (from our US$500 million (S$639 million) investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion,” though it was not clear which entity he was referring to as he is no longer running the exchange.
Yi He, the co-chief executive officer of Binance, responded to CZ’s comment, saying that “the company’s revenue for the year is sufficient to cover the losses”. The two are partners and have children.
Spokespeople for Zhao and Binance declined to comment further. A spokesperson for Space Exploration Technologies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shares of SpaceX slumped as much as 5.6% in early trading in New York. BNB, the utility token of the Binance exchange, has dropped as much as 10% over the past two days.
The social media spat, which gave a glimpse into the finances of the world’s largest crypto exchange, is further evidence of how the hack of Binance has fixated not only the crypto industry but also the broader world of business.
And the back-and-forth is somewhat of a reversal of roles from 2022, when Zhao frequently wrote on social media about the now-failed crypto exchange FTX as it moved toward bankruptcy.
His posts about selling a cryptocurrency tied to FTX further destabilised the company, whose chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud.
The crypto analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have estimated that hackers exploited Binance on Oct 29 for US$6.3 billion, which is the largest crypto heist on record. Both companies say that North Korea is likely behind the exploit. Binance said that an investigation into the breach is ongoing and the exchange has temporarily halted deposits and withdrawals.
Analysts have repeatedly attributed hacks of crypto companies to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over the past five years, including the last largest breach on record – a US$1.5 billion heist from the crypto exchange Bybit in 2025.
The hack of Binance, however, dwarfs that of its competitor. Crypto firms have already frozen, or stopped hackers from moving, around US$3 billion of digital assets that the cybercriminals pilfered from the exchange, Binance said in a social media post.
The crypto exchange has said it will cover all losses and that it has already reserved US$6.34 billion of the company’s funds to cover the hack. BLOOMBERG
