Binance’s CZ Explains ‘Panic’ Alert: “Better Than People Losing Money”

Binance chief executive officer ‘CZ’ said the alert on Uniswap attack was intended in the best interests of public money. He said however that he could waited for a response from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin about any confirmation. Admitting that he had tweeted before getting confirmation, he said any loss of his reputation was better than people losing money.

Successful Phishing Exploit

Earlier, CZ had in a tweet said there could have been a potential exploit on the Uniswap V3 protocol on the Ethereum blockchain. The hacker had stolen 4295 ETH, and was using Tornado Cash to launder proceeds, he stated. It was later clarified that the Uniswap protocol was safe and that the exploit was a phishing campaign.

However, CZ justified his alert saying that billions of dollars could have been lost if it was a real exploit.

“I could have waited until I got the private contact info for the Uniswap team. It would have avoided any public “panic”. But if this was a real exploit, millions or billions more could have lost during that time.”

Vitalik’s Response For Confirmation

In a screenshot of Binance’s internal chat, CZ would inform his team about asking Vitalik on the the exploit. However, he later admitted in a recent tweet that he did not wait for the Ethereum founder’s response. “I pulled the trigger (posted the tweet) before our security team even confirmed.” He said he was in a tight spot to take a decision with incomplete information.

Although it was not a full fledged compromise, this episode explains how important it is to quickly alert on exploits. Reacting to this, one crypto enthusiast John Shutt said the whole scenario gave the community a chance to test the crisis button.

“Glad CZ’s tweet about a possible Uniswap exploit was a false alarm. But it gave us a chance to test the crisis button at UMA and see that it gets everyone in the room immediately.”