‘Elite North Korean hackers’ blamed for $6.3bn Binance hack – business live

The crypto industry is reeling from a massive hack at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Digital assets worth more than $6.3bn (£4.7bn) have reportedly been taken from Binance by North Korean hackers, apparently after a laptop belonging to one of its engineers was hacked.

The company said its teams are "working around the clock" to resolve the issue. "Rest assured that user funds are completely safe," a Binance spokesperson said in a statement.

Binance said it had worked with partners to freeze the affected assets, with about $3bn located so far. It gave no update on the status of the remaining $3.3bn as Binance co-founder Yi He said the company would cover "all hacking losses".

UK regulators monitoring

The UK's financial watchdogs are now monitoring for any potential fallout from the Binance heist. A spokesperson for Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said: "While Binance wasn't registered with the FCA to provide crypto services in UK, we're aware of the reported incident and engaging with them to understand the impact."

While crypto firms are not regulated in the UK, the Bank of England and FCA will be keeping an eye on any banks, insurers or fintechs that are exposed to Binance, and how that could ultimately hurt the UK's wider financial system.

North Korean hackers blamed

TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm, has declared that an elite North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor was responsible for the security breach at Binance. TRM Labs have also calculated that the breach is "the largest crypto theft on record".

On October 29, 2026, an attacker moved approximately $6.36bn out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes starting at 20:05 UTC. That makes this the largest crypto theft on record, about four times the $1.5bn Bybit hack of February 2025.

News of Binance's security breach sent bitcoin falling by more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368 – although it's since recovered back to $78,335 (-0.6%). US stocks linked to cryptocurrencies fell in afterhours trading.

Binance response

Richard Teng, the co-chief executive officer of Binance, has pledged that customers' money is 'safe', despite the hack. Posting on X, Teng confirms that it appears the break-in came via an employee's laptop – but insists it was a 'more complex' attack than simply clicking on a rogue link.

Teng adds that Binance will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and every fact is verified - and publish an updated Proof of Reserves once remediation is complete.

Industry concerns

Justas Pukys, senior product manager at Surfshark, a cybersecurity company, reckons Binance customers should watch out for a potential second wave of scams targeting them. "Criminals could exploit the panic surrounding the incident to trick people into handing over their savings," Pukys explains.

Syed Rahman, fraud & financial crime partner at Keystone Law, argues Binance's breach may show the "industrialisation of state-sponsored crime" is underway. "The more important number in this hack may not be $6.3 billion. It may well be 20 minutes," Rahman says.