OneKey Founder: IBIT Could Become Target of North Korean Hackers; Coinbase's Single-Custodian Model Raises Security Concerns

As reported by TechFlow on Oct. 30, OneKey founder Yishi warned in a post that as Bitcoin ETF holdings expand, security risks facing custodians are also rising, and believes BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) could become a potential target of North Korean hacking groups. He noted that TRM Labs has high confidence that the recent Binance security incident is linked to North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor, which had previously been linked to the Bybit theft and the DMM Bitcoin theft.

Currently, IBIT holds about 815,000 BTC, worth approximately $63 billion, and Coinbase remains its primary custodian. Although Anchorage Digital has been appointed as an additional custodian, the latest quarterly filing shows that there are currently no plans to transfer Bitcoin to that institution. Yishi noted that a theft on the scale of $6 billion would represent a loss of about 9.5% of IBIT's assets; because Bitcoin lacks the freezing mechanisms available to stablecoin issuers, recovery would be more difficult. In addition, Coinbase has disclosed commercial crime insurance coverage of $320 million, which is shared among its customers.

Source: TechFlow