Michael Tanguma
ON THE RECORD · 8 verbatim quotes · every quote source-verified
“Nothing in the law requires it to,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma said no law requires an exchange to repay customers after a hack.
“On an exchange, that point is the company: its employees, its approval systems, its finances, and its willingness to repay you,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma said the weak point on an exchange is the company itself—its employees, approval systems, finances, and willingness to repay.
“The stolen funds came from wallets the exchange keeps connected to the internet to process everyday withdrawals, not from its offline reserves,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma explained that the stolen funds from the Binance hack came from internet-connected wallets, not offline reserves.
“When your own account is compromised, through a stolen password, a phishing link, or a hijacked phone number, the outlook is much worse,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma said the outlook is much worse when an individual account is compromised versus an exchange attack.
“Moving savings off an exchange trades one kind of risk for another. It does not remove risk,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma said moving crypto savings off an exchange trades one risk for another rather than eliminating risk.
“but only because the exchange decides to pay and has the money to do so.”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma said hacked exchange customers are usually repaid only because the exchange chooses to pay and has sufficient funds.
“Some stolen funds can be frozen. Tether and Circle, the companies behind the two largest dollar-backed tokens, froze billions of dollars of this week's stolen money, and law enforcement occasionally recovers assets years later,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma noted that Tether and Circle froze billions in stolen money, but added that bitcoin has no company behind it that can freeze funds.
“Binance says no keys were leaked. The attackers manipulated the system that approves withdrawals, the same approach used in last year's $1.5 billion theft from Bybit, which targeted a transfer out of cold storage,”
Michael Tanguma · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-31
Tanguma described how attackers manipulated Binance's withdrawal approval system, comparing it to the Bybit cold storage theft.