North Korean hackers blamed for $6.3bn Binance theft, largest crypto heist on record

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM has attributed the theft of more than $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance to North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking unit, making it the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the breach appeared to originate from a compromised laptop belonging to one of the exchange's engineers, describing the attack as more complex than a simple phishing click. Around $3 billion of the stolen assets has been frozen on-chain through coordination with blockchain partners, Teng said, while the status of the remaining roughly $3.3 billion was not disclosed. Binance co-founder Yi He said the company would cover all hacking losses.

TRM broke down the stolen assets: Ethereum accounts for approximately $3.79 billion, including 200,630 ETH and 185 other tokens among which 1.875 billion USDT, 823 million USDC and 88.5 million RLUSD. Bitcoin outflows total 18,270 BTC, approximately $1.47 billion. Tron outflows total approximately $628 million. The XRP Ledger lost 233.46 million XRP, approximately $296 million, and Solana outflows total approximately $96 million.

Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals, revoked affected address authorisations, and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace funds. Teng said the company was working closely with law enforcement.

Most major cryptocurrencies fell in value after news of the theft broke. Bitcoin dropped 2.35% over 24 hours to $77,940, according to Coinmarketcap data.

User deposits remain unaffected and operating normally, Teng said, adding that there was no evidence of any wallet private key leak. Losses will be covered through the SAFU fund and company funds.