"What I lost confidence in are these platforms, not the blockchain technology."

Written by: Aaliyah Ahmed, The Times

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Binance was hacked last week, and the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange faced issues, causing investors to worry about the future of their crypto assets.

Investing £5000 in XRP, I Regret It

33-year-old Max Daniels works in the communications industry, and he is struggling with whether to cut his losses in time. He invested a total of £5000 in cryptocurrency, and the recent hacking incident at the world's largest exchange, Binance, has heightened his concerns.

Max Daniels originally hoped for an XRP price rebound, but after the hacking incident at Binance, he plans to sell everything once the price warms up.

Last summer, seeing friends and family earn considerable profits in the crypto market, Daniels purchased XRP through Coinbase. He invested £4000 when the price was around £1.6; later, as the price continued to rise, he added another £1000. Currently, that position is worth less than £3000, and regret continually washes over him.

Recently moved into a new house, Daniels stated that he and his wife plan to sell everything when the crypto asset prices rebound and their losses do not look as glaring. "We never expected to break even, let alone make a profit. We just hope the losses don’t look as bad as they do now," he said.

The Binance hacking incident is regarded as one of the largest financial thefts in history, with hackers stealing assets worth $6.3 billion from the exchange's cryptocurrency wallets.

Binance stated that the hack originated from a human error: an engineer accidentally downloaded malicious software in June; afterwards, hackers impersonated a job interview to trick another employee into installing malicious programs. Of the $6.34 billion stolen, $2.85 billion has already been frozen or intercepted by the platform. The FBI attributed the attack to a North Korean hacker group.

Although Daniels did not keep his funds on the Binance platform, this security incident made him question how safe cryptocurrency really is. "After all, it's a digital asset; everything relies on the digital world, and it could also be destroyed in the digital world. Once a hack happens, in the long run, the entire market will be affected."

After this incident, he began to monitor his investments more closely, adjusting price alerts on his Coinbase account so that once the price reaches his psychological expectation, he is ready to sell with his wife.

Daniels interacts with clients in the crypto industry as part of his job, and he is well aware of the risks such as "bad actors" and market manipulation in the industry. However, the allure of high returns, coupled with the external market atmosphere, drove him to take the risk.

He invested 60% of an inheritance into an S&P 500 index fund, 30% in XRP, and the rest for daily expenses. The returns from the index fund generally offset his losses in cryptocurrency. "I am not someone who loves high-risk speculation. To be honest, index funds will always rise in the long run."

"I Have Lost Confidence in Cryptocurrency Trading Platforms"

35-year-old Tom Stanley is an IT director from West Yorkshire, and he has invested about £20,000 in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.

35-year-old Tom Stanley invested £20,000 in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.

The Binance hacking incident made him worry about whether the trading platform that holds his assets is secure enough. He has been investing in cryptocurrencies for ten years, primarily using Coinbase. Although there has been no unusual activity in his account, he has started to diversify some assets to multiple trading platforms to mitigate risk.

He worries that hackers can bypass conventional security protections such as SMS verification, facial recognition, and voice print recognition. After the incident at Binance, he increased the frequency of checking his account, but he has not completely given up on cryptocurrency.

In his view, what was exposed were the flaws of custodial and trading platforms, rather than the underlying technology of cryptocurrency itself. "I lost confidence in these platforms, not in blockchain technology."

Coinbase responded: The ownership of assets on the platform always belongs to the users and will not lend or use user assets without permission. The vast majority of assets are stored in secure offline cold wallets, along with multiple protections, including access control and various tools to help users secure their accounts.