Binance says customer losses will be covered after record $6.3 billion crypto theft

Hackers stole about $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance on October 29, carrying out what has been described as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Most of the assets were drained from wallets across 10 blockchain networks in a roughly 20-minute period.

Binance initially said a compromised laptop may have enabled the attack, but later said its investigation had uncovered additional breach points without providing details. TRM Labs said the attackers compromised infrastructure used to authorize transactions, allowing them to issue apparently legitimate withdrawal instructions without obtaining Binance’s master private keys.

Cryptocurrency companies and blockchain operators froze roughly half of the stolen assets, including stablecoins issued by Tether and Circle. TRM estimated that the attackers retained control of about $2.4 billion in bitcoin and ether. Some stolen stablecoins were reportedly used as collateral to borrow ether before the stablecoins could be frozen.

NPR reported that the FBI confirmed North Korea was behind the theft. TRM attributed the operation with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a North Korean group linked to Lazarus, citing transaction analysis and similarities to earlier attacks. North Korea has routinely denied involvement in cryptocurrency thefts.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said customer assets were safe and that the company would cover losses with its own funds and its user protection reserve. Binance said it had reserved more than $6.34 billion, including $5 billion in the affected tokens, and later said about 90% of the stolen cryptocurrency assets had been replenished.