Hackers Steal Billions in Cryptocurrency From Binance Exchange

Hackers stole $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance wallets on Thursday in the largest digital theft in history, prompting the exchange to suspend trading and freeze half of the missing funds.

The attack involved the rapid movement of funds across 10 blockchains, with most of the assets transferred in about 20 minutes according to blockchain analysis firms.

The massive breach disrupted digital asset markets, sending bitcoin and ether lower while liquidations across cryptocurrency futures jumped to $1.57 billion.

Blockchain intelligence companies quickly pointed to North Korea's elite hacking unit known as TraderTraitor, though law enforcement officials have not confirmed the attribution.

“We think North Korea is likely responsible,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist and cofounder of Elliptic.

“If North Korea is behind it, this one theft would almost double everything the regime has stolen in crypto to date,” Robinson said.

Binance CEO Richard Teng said the security incident was more complex than initial estimates suggested and did not involve a simple employee compromise.

“The attacker did not simply use one engineer's permissions, and this was not a single 'one-click' action,” said Richard Teng, chief executive officer of Binance.

The exchange committed to covering all user losses using its internal reserve funds while working alongside law enforcement agencies to trace the stolen assets.

“User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance,” said Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and former chief executive officer of Binance.

Other cryptocurrency platforms moved swiftly to assist with containment efforts, with Tether and Circle freezing roughly $2.3 billion combined.

Investigators continue tracking the remaining funds as they move through decentralized finance protocols and cross-chain bridges.