Crypto exchange FTX to provide US$6 mil phishing compensation

(Oct 24): Digital-asset exchange FTX will provide about US$6 million compensation to its account holders impacted by a phishing incident via a third-party website.

Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s chief executive officer, said on Twitter on Monday that the decision was a one-off as the firm won’t be “making a habit” of compensating users caught up in phishing efforts targeting non-FTX websites.

If the perpetrators send back 95% of the US$6 million taken from FTX accounts within 24 hours, “we’ll absolve them”, Bankman-Fried said.

Last week, Bankman-Fried proposed in a blog post what he called a “5-5 standard” where crypto hackers keep either 5% of the amount they’ve taken from a protocol or US$5 million, whichever is smaller.

That was part of an effort to curb the security exploits plaguing the digital-asset industry.