Hackers stole about $6.3 billion from Binance in the largest crypto theft on record. Blockchain analysts blame North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, says about $6.3 billion was stolen in the biggest theft in crypto history.
The bulk of it moved in roughly 20 minutes beginning late Thursday. The exchange halted withdrawals, said user funds were safe and promised to cover the losses, while blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis said with high confidence that North Korea’s state-linked TraderTraitor unit, a subunit of Lazarus, was behind it. North Korea routinely denies involvement; its Geneva mission and Beijing embassy did not immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for comment.
How it happened
Attackers were able to order the wallets Binance uses to empty into hacker-controlled addresses, mirroring the 2025 Bybit heist that the FBI attributed to Pyongyang.
Binance’s initial probe pointed to a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers, but in an investigation update on Friday the company said it had “uncovered additional points of breach”, so the laptop was not the only entry route. Mark Karpeles, the former chief of Mt Gox, said the attackers probably obtained private keys for at least two Binance wallets, and noted that splitting assets across systems limited, but did not prevent, the damage.
What has been recovered
About half the stolen assets were quickly frozen. Tether said it froze nearly $1.57 billion, Circle more than $800 million, and Ripple roughly $200 million; World Liberty Financial, co-founded by President Trump’s sons, said it froze balances with custodian BitGo.
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said about $3 billion has been located and expected withdrawals to resume within 48 hours. The status of the remaining $3.3 billion was not addressed.
Market fallout
Bitcoin fell to a six-week low of $76,368 and ether dropped more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178 before stabilising. BNB was down about 5% over 24 hours at $709.70, per CoinGecko.
Coinbase shares slid 4.8% in extended trading despite the exchange saying it was unaffected, and bitcoin-holding Strategy fell nearly 6%. “It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralised exchanges,” said Tim Sun of HashKey Group.
The balance-sheet question
Binance has 335 million registered users and reported about $162.8 billion in assets under custody in its 2025 annual report. Its secure asset fund is a $1 billion reserve held entirely in bitcoin — far smaller than this loss, which Teng said would be met from that fund “and company funds”.
The pattern
TRM researchers recorded $2.9 billion stolen across nearly 150 attacks last year, and Bitget reported about $350 million taken in September.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
