CZ: "Press the red button first" was his rule during Binance's 2019 $40M hack

CZ describes Binance's 2019 response to its $40 million hack

CZ recounts that in May 2019 Binance was hacked for $40 million "in one shot." His first move was to pause all systems. He describes keeping a mental "red button" for security incidents:

"you press when when when when a hack when a security incident happens, you press the red button first, and you figure out what Everything stops, right?"

He compares this to Toyota's andon cord, saying anyone at an exchange should be able to halt operations, and says Binance had that mechanism in 2019 and likely still does.

Withdrawals stayed paused for a week, while trading resumed after a couple of hours to avoid Binance's prices drifting from other exchanges. During that week, CZ says Binance rebuilt its infrastructure, moving from a server-based to a serverless architecture. He argues that trading disruptions and liquidation issues are "secondary" to the risk of more money flowing out incorrectly.

CZ on advising Bybit's Ben Zhou differently during its $1.5 billion hack

CZ says he publicly suggested Ben Zhou pause withdrawals two days after Bybit's $1.5 billion hack, but Zhou did not. Asked whether Zhou was right and he was wrong, CZ says:

"I think in this type of situation, there's no right or wrong. It's a judgment call."

He notes Zhou had far more internal information and that the outcome was fine since continued withdrawals caused no further problems.

CZ says his intent in speaking publicly was to give Zhou "social credibility" to pause withdrawals if he chose to, reducing community backlash. He adds that Bybit used a third-party wallet provider and that the hack's code had reportedly sat dormant before being activated, but says judging the decision in hindsight is "really subjective."