Binance says hackers stole $6.3 billion in record cryptocurrency heist
publishers 51articles 61first reported 29 Oct, 22:05 UTCdeveloping since 30 Oct · 3 editionstop 25 #5
Binance said hackers stole about $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from wallets used by the exchange, in what blockchain analysis firms described as the largest crypto theft on record.
Most of the assets were transferred across 10 blockchains in roughly 20 minutes beginning late Thursday, according to TRM Labs. Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals while investigating and said about $3 billion of the stolen assets had been frozen with help from stablecoin issuers and other industry partners. The exchange has not detailed the status of the remaining funds.
Binance initially said a compromised engineer’s laptop may have allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawals. It later said investigators had found additional points of breach, without elaborating. The company said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were exposed.
TRM Labs and Chainalysis attributed the attack to North Korean hackers. TRM said with “high confidence” that TraderTraitor, a unit linked to the Lazarus Group, was responsible, citing similarities to the 2025 theft of $1.5 billion from Bybit. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the exchange had not attributed responsibility to any individual. North Korea routinely denies involvement in cryptocurrency thefts.
Binance said customer losses would be covered through its secure asset fund and company resources. Bitcoin and ether each fell more than 3 percent in Asian trading on Friday, while Binance-linked BNB dropped about 5 percent over 24 hours.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 6 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 18 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
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- Source articles
- 61
- Given to the writer
- 8, 6 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 18 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
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