US bank supervisors contacted lenders to check whether their systems had vulnerabilities after a $6.3 billion hack of Binance, Reuters reported on November 5, citing several sources familiar with the matter. Supervisors from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency began reaching out on Monday morning, asking about unusual activity or disruption in bank services.
One source at a bank regulators contacted said it had no service disruptions. Employees there prepared talking points for customers but had received few inquiries, the source said. Banks have also been studying the Binance hack, described in the report as believed to be the largest financial heist in history, and running diagnostics on their own systems, according to two separate people familiar with the efforts.
Within hours of the attack, a cybersecurity team at one of the largest US banks contacted counterparts at Binance, according to one of the sources. That team is preparing an internal report that will lead to a review of the bank's systems and possibly cybersecurity updates, the source said. It was not yet clear whether the bank would be vulnerable to similar tactics, according to the source.
Binance said it was unaware of conversations between bankers and regulators and of whether the hack affected US banks. "We are in close contact with regulators all over the world, keeping them up to date on this security breach," a Binance spokesperson said. The Fed and OCC declined comment.
One of the people familiar with the matter said the concern is that artificial intelligence models have been evolving quickly, making it hard for banks to keep up with hackers, and that banks are devoting resources to reviews and patches of cybersecurity code. The report noted that President Donald Trump has been a cheerleader for cryptocurrencies and that the Federal Reserve revoked a 2022 rule advising banks to seek permission before launching crypto-related activities.