Binance Loses $6 Billion in Largest Crypto Heist

Over $6 billion in cryptocurrency vanished from digital wallets held at Binance on Thursday, marking the largest theft in the history of the asset class. The breach occurred at the world's largest crypto exchange, where hackers exploited a compromised engineer's laptop to access a service container. This access allowed the attackers to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions, draining funds before the company could intervene.

Binance announced late Thursday that it would cover all losses using its own corporate funds and an emergency assets fund. The company stated that user funds remain safe. It also temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals to complete security checks. Binance revoked the authorization for the affected address and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace the money.

By Thursday night, a coalition of cryptocurrency firms had managed to freeze approximately $3 billion of the stolen loot. This amount represents half of the total sum taken. The rapid response reflects an intense effort by industry participants to track the digital assets before the hackers can move them to different blockchains or convert them.

Multiple independent analysts attributed the attack to North Korea. TRM Labs, a crypto-tracing firm, linked the heist to an elite North Korean hacking unit based on on and off-chain intelligence. Pangolin Intelligence, a Singapore-based tracking firm, reached a similar conclusion by analyzing on-chain activity and correlating it with previous incidents. A Chainalysis spokesperson also expressed high confidence that North Korea was responsible for the hack.

The attribution to Pyongyang aligns with recent patterns of cybercrime targeting financial institutions. North Korean hackers were blamed for the previous record-high crypto hack, in which they stole $1.5 billion from Bybit. That earlier theft amounted to a significant portion of North Korea's reported annual gross domestic product. Current and former US and South Korean officials describe these hacking teams as a key source of revenue for the regime, which faces heavy sanctions.

Aravind Srinivasan, head of large crypto market maker GSR's systematic OTC business, described the incident as the biggest hack in history. The scale of the theft has shocked analysts in the industry. One analyst with Pangolin Intelligence noted that the cat and mouse game has barely begun. They suggested that North Korea is likely to use a network of money laundering organizations to cash out the remaining stolen funds.

Chainalysis reported monitoring the stolen funds moving across multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. The movement of assets across different networks complicates the recovery process. CNN has contacted North Korea's mission at the UN for comment, though Pyongyang has previously denied similar allegations. The US Secret Service and the FBI have also been requested for comment, with the FBI known to maintain an on-call team of analysts for such incidents.

In 2023, a CNN investigation detailed how the South Korean intelligence service worked with private experts to seize about $1 million in cryptocurrency stolen by North Koreans. That case involved a single victim. The current event involves a global exchange and a sum of money more than six times larger than the previous record. The contrast underscores the increasing sophistication and scale of cyberattacks on digital financial infrastructure.