Yesterday, a Weibo user posted a message saying "Please do not accept low-priced OTC currency from unknown sources, as some user accounts have been frozen." The picture shows that the user's account has been locked, and the email message prompts that the account is being reviewed by the local public security agency. Before the review is completed, the user cannot buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies.

Some people in the group discussed that this was not the only case of frozen accounts, and that the accounts of multiple users had been frozen. Currently, Binance is cooperating.

It is understood that most accounts are frozen because of asset problems, such as flash loans, theft of DeFi project assets, or buying cheaply from C2C ​​private transactions through wallets. Generally, U purchased at low prices are assets stolen from DeFi projects by thieves, and their wallets will be marked as stolen money wallets. As long as the assets in the wallet are transferred to any other wallet, other wallets will also be contaminated.

When these contaminated wallets deposit funds into exchanges, exchanges with higher risk control levels will query the on-chain information and freeze the user’s account. According to Binance insiders, accounts frozen for this reason are generally difficult to recover.

How to prevent exchange accounts from being frozen

Previously, a blogger on YouTube posted a video titled "60,000 US dollars of assets were frozen in the Binance account. Why did the exchange platform freeze user assets? How to prevent the exchange account from being frozen?"

The video mentioned that a friend of his had his account frozen, with about $60,000 in it, and he had spent nearly two weeks trying to resolve the issue. He also said that Binance freezing user accounts is not an isolated case, and the amount is generally not small. He said that most people's assets were frozen because there were certain problems with their assets, but the source of funds in his friend's account was fine, and he didn't understand the reason for the freeze.

When talking about how to avoid such risks, he said that all USDT in and out must be traded through first-tier platforms, because such platforms are relatively safe. If private transactions are used, it is likely that the wallet will be contaminated. He also said that private transactions of USDT are stupid, because many people now use cross-chain bridges and other methods to launder assets. And remind users not to use private transactions, because this will only "pick up sesame seeds and lose watermelons."

On August 10, Binance announced that in order to protect the security of user assets, the Binance C2C platform will launch the "SHIELD Pro Advertiser" at 18:00 Beijing time on August 11. SHIELD service means that when the payment account of the trading user (seller) is frozen due to the reasons of the SHIELD Pro Advertiser, the trading user (seller) will receive a certain amount of compensation.

How to keep personal assets

Cryptocurrency has been a hot topic in recent years, and how to protect personal assets from being stolen has also become a focus of everyone's attention.

Asset custody method: cold wallet + hardware wallet

• Cold wallet

In order to eliminate the significant online attack factor, many people choose to use cold wallets to keep their keys offline. Cold wallets are a relatively broad concept. As long as they are not connected to the Internet and do not store their private keys within the reach of the Internet, they can be called cold wallets. Unlike hot wallets, cold wallets are not connected to the Internet. Downloading BitTorrent's cold wallet is also a way to keep personal assets from being stolen.

• Hardware wallets

Hardware wallets are designed to use similar principles of offline custody of private keys, while focusing on optimizing the user experience. These wallets are designed to store digital currencies and are more portable and cheaper than full computers.

This physical device can store private keys securely and does not require an internet connection. A good hardware wallet ensures that private keys never leave the device. They are usually stored in a special location in the device and cannot be removed. In recent years, the hardware wallet industry has developed rapidly, and many products have emerged in the market, such as Cobo Wallet, KeepKey Wallet, Kushen Wallet, etc.

No matter which method you use to keep your assets, you must remember to back up and store your private key or mnemonic. Because for digital users, private keys determine ownership, and only those who own private keys can truly own digital currency assets. Therefore, how to safely keep private keys is basic knowledge that everyone needs to master before entering the digital currency field.