Elon Musk, CZ Trade Blows Over SpaceX Shares After $6.4B Binance Hack
In brief
- CZ asked Elon Musk to stop trolling Binance over its $6.3 billion hack, citing the exchange's SpaceX shares, which he values at more than $1 billion.
- Binance co-CEO Yi He said the company's annual revenue is sufficient to cover the losses without selling its SpaceX holdings. CZ later clarified that he had never suggested selling the shares.
- Binance has reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the incident, while TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the attack to North Korea-linked hacking group TraderTraitor.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, called out Elon Musk on Friday after the billionaire appeared to mock the exchange following a $6.4 billion hack—the largest in history—reminding him that Binance holds SpaceX shares worth more than $1 billion.
"Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop," CZ wrote on X. "Our SPCX shares (from our $500m investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion. Would appreciate if you show a little support. Thanks!"
The exchange followed Musk's response to a post estimating that, as a lot of the stolen funds have been frozen, Binance's losses could reach around $1 billion, despite holding approximately $144 billion in assets under custody.
Musk had replied to the discussion with a grimacing emoji, prompting another user to share an old post from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried claiming his exchange had enough money to cover its losses. FTX famously collapsed weeks later.
Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop.
Our SPCX shares (from our $500m investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion.
Would appreciate if you show a little support. Thanks!
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 30, 2026
CZ had initially responded to the loss estimate by saying the damage might be somewhat higher but that Binance would still be able to cover it. Musk's emoji appeared to draw an uncomfortable parallel with the FTX episode, although he did not elaborate on what he meant.
Of course, CZ didn't imply anything else about what Binance may do with its SpaceX shares.
Binance co-CEO Yi He also joined the exchange, addressing CZ in a post that appeared to respond to the suggestion that the company might need to liquidate its SpaceX holdings.
"Reporting to the major shareholder: Our company's revenue for the year is sufficient to cover the losses, so we do not yet need to sell the SpaceX shares you are bullish on," she wrote, adding a shrugging emoji.
CZ subsequently clarified that he had never suggested selling the shares. He said he was simply showing Musk some of the funds Binance had available, hoping to reassure him about the exchange's financial position.
😂 did say anything about selling SPCX shares, was just saying/showing some funds that he might know, so that he can be less worried.
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 30, 2026
The argument comes as Binance deals with the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. At least $6.4 billion in crypto was taken from wallets associated with the exchange on Thursday, October 29, across multiple blockchains.
Just yesterday, initial reports showed that at least $5.57 billion had left Binance-linked wallets across Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron. The attackers moved funds through several transactions, including a transfer of more than $1.6 billion in USDT to a newly created Ethereum address.
The incident also exposed an important weakness in how cryptocurrency can be recovered after a theft. Tether and Circle, the companies behind the USDT and USDC stablecoins, froze approximately $1.8 billion in assets associated with the attackers in the initial response, then subsequently froze a total of $2.39 billion. Unlike those tokens, Ethereum cannot be frozen by a central issuer, making it harder to stop stolen funds once they are converted.
→The attackers subsequently used decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and lending protocol Aave to move funds into Ethereum. These platforms allow users to trade or borrow cryptocurrency without relying on a traditional intermediary to approve each transaction. Decrypt tracked wallets receiving tens of thousands of ETH through these operations, including 19,762 ETH borrowed against approximately $60 million in USDT.
The suspected attackers have also been linked to North Korea. In a Friday report, blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group previously blamed for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025. Chainalysis estimated the Binance theft at approximately $6.4 billion.
Binance has since said it has reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the incident, including $5 billion already held in the same tokens that were stolen. The exchange said it is acquiring the remaining assets through market and over-the-counter purchases, which can take longer when certain tokens have limited liquidity.
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