Hackers Steal $6.3bn in Crypto Assets From Binance – Report - TVC News
Hackers have stolen more than $6.3bn worth of digital assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, potentially becoming the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.
The reported theft could also rank among the biggest financial heists in history. According to SkyNews on Friday, the security exploit targeted Binance, one of the world's biggest platforms for trading digital assets, which said it was establishing the facts with urgency.
Suspension and Response
Deposits and withdrawals were suspended for customers – with the company insisting user funds were safe and all hacking losses would be covered. Richard Teng, the co-CEO of Binance, said the company's 'initial investigation suggests this security incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop'.
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.
Sophisticated Attack
According to TRM Labs, an elite North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor was responsible for the theft – and it was completed in just 20 minutes. That would make it the largest cryptocurrency hack to date – surpassing the $1.5bn that was stolen when the Bybit exchange was targeted last year.
Ari Redbord, chief policy officer of the crypto analytics company TRM Labs, told Sky News: 'This is an extraordinary hack, for its size and for the response… Few financial systems have ever shown a theft of this scale.' He explained the attacker was able to move billions of dollars across eight blockchain networks in about 15 minutes.
Industry Implications
Izabella Kaminska – who edits independent publication The Blind Spot and reports on the crypto industry – told Sky News it 'appears to be a highly sophisticated and well-rehearsed attack'. She said the hack comes at a time of growing concern that major cyber vulnerabilities in the financial system are about to be exposed or exploited by AI agents.
Ms Kaminska explained that the crypto industry has long sought to differentiate itself from the banking sector by claiming it is decentralised and resistant to censorship. However, she added: 'The reality is and always was that the vast majority of crypto platforms – and in some cases assets too – are just as structurally centralised as conventional banking platforms.'
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