Binance has suffered what is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, with more than $6.3 billion in digital assets stolen in a sophisticated attack blamed on a North Korean hacking group.
Hackers have stolen cryptocurrency worth more than $6.3 billion from Binance, one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges, in what is believed to be the biggest crypto heist in history.
The attack, which Binance said it was investigating urgently, saw deposits and withdrawals temporarily suspended.
The company said customer funds were safe and that it would cover losses resulting from the incident.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the theft to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean hacking group linked to previous attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges.
It said the operation was completed in about 20 minutes, with billions of dollars moved across eight blockchain networks in roughly 15 minutes.
Richard Teng, Binance’s co-chief executive, said an initial investigation suggested the incident may have begun with a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer.
He said: “To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer’s permissions, and this was not a single ‘one-click’ action. It involved a more complex attack process.”
Teng said Binance had not attributed responsibility to any individual and was working with law enforcement.
TRM Labs chief policy officer Ari Redbord described the incident as extraordinary, saying few financial systems had experienced a theft on such a scale.
The attack eclipses the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit exchange last year, which was also linked to North Korean hackers.
More than $3 billion of the stolen assets have since been frozen, potentially preventing the attackers from converting them into cash.
However, Redbord said the hackers still controlled about $2.4 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ether.
The incident has renewed concerns about the security of major cryptocurrency platforms, particularly as digital assets become increasingly connected to conventional financial markets.
Crypto industry analyst Izabella Kaminska said the attack demonstrated that many supposedly decentralised cryptocurrency services remain structurally centralised.
She said: “Unlike banks, however, when these systems get hacked or become insolvent, there is no recourse to a lender of last resort or deposit insurance fund. Depositors are on their own.”
Bitcoin fell sharply following news of the attack, trading at about $77,000 early on Friday (30.10.26), down around five per cent over 24 hours.
Some smaller cryptocurrencies fell by almost 10 per cent.
Binance said its security team was reviewing the incident and urged users to remain alert to scams.
The company’s investigation is continuing, with experts warning that freezing assets does not guarantee the recovery of stolen funds.
Hackers steal $6.3 billion from Binance in record crypto heist
