Waters Seeks Stronger Crypto Safeguards After Binance’s $6.3 Billion Hack

Rep. Maxine Waters is pressing for tougher crypto safeguards after Binance put losses from a hot-wallet breach at about $6.3 billion and halted customer withdrawals.

Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, called for stronger customer protections and financial-crime and cybersecurity standards in a statement dated Oct. 30. She described the reported hack as a “wake-up call” for accountability in the crypto industry.

Binance placed the unauthorized hot-wallet withdrawals at about 4:05 p.m. ET Oct. 29 (20:05 UTC). In an Oct. 30 update, it said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds, including $5 billion in affected tokens, and reported about $3 billion frozen on-chain. Withdrawals remained suspended during security checks.

The loss estimate and frozen-funds figure are separate measures; they do not establish a net loss. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sought public comment Oct. 5 on a proposed framework for certain retail commodity transactions involving crypto, including a possible registration category for markets serving those transactions.