North Korean hackers steal $6.3 BILLION from Binance in largest crypto hack in history

Customer withdrawals from the company have been temporarily suspended and the co-CEO Richard Teng has vowed that the company will cover any and all losses by customers. "We are committed to covering all hacked losses through our company funds. Your assets are safe," Teng said in a post.

The heist was carried out in 20 minutes starting at around 4:30 pm eastern time. The hack took place because of a vulnerability with a Binance engineer's laptop, according to analytics firm TRM Labs.

The analytics firm attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which is North Korea's premier hacking unit. The FBI has said the same group is responsible for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack from February 2025. US officials have said that cybercrimes from North Korea fund about half of North Korea's missile program.

Teng said that the hackers "used a self-destruct mechanism … making it more difficult for us to trace and investigate." Although around $6.3 billion was stolen, Binance was able to recover some of the assets. Around $2.8 billion was frozen by stablecoin providers. However, about $3 billion is likely gone forever.

“Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice,” Binance said in an official statement.

The crypto exchange, although it suspended all withdrawals, says that customers will be allowed to move their funds within two days. As the hack took place, Bitcoin fell below $80,000 for the first time in a month