Gone in 20 Minutes: How the Biggest Heist in Crypto History Unfolded - Carrier Management
Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, in a record digital asset theft that unfolded in about 20 minutes.
The exchange operates a secure asset fund for users, a $1 billion bitcoin reserve designed to protect customers in the event of a security breach. Co-CEO Richard Teng said losses would be covered by the fund and company resources.
Breach Details
According to US blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, the attackers compromised Binance's "signing infrastructure," which authorizes transactions, allowing them to issue instructions that emptied the affected wallets.
In layman's terms, the attacker may not have stolen the vault key, they may have hijacked the system that tells the vault to release money.
Investigation Leads
Several US blockchain analysis firms said the attack bears similarities to previous operations attributed to North Korean hackers. TRM said the breach shared characteristics with last year's attack on crypto exchange Bybit, which the FBI attributed to North Korean hackers.
Chainalysis said funds stolen in an attack last month on Bitget were being mixed with proceeds from the Binance breach. Teng said Binance's investigation had not yet identified the attackers, while North Korea routinely denies involvement in cyberattacks and cryptocurrency thefts.
Asset Recovery
About half the stolen assets were stablecoins that have since been frozen by issuers including Tether, Circle, Ripple and World Liberty Financial. TRM said some of the funds had already been posted as collateral to borrow ether and estimated that about $2.4 billion worth of bitcoin and ether is beyond reach.
Patrick Tan, general counsel of ChainArgos, explained that because no centralized entity issues bitcoin or ether, no one can freeze those assets. "The bitcoin and ether can be stopped only if the attacker sends them to a crypto-asset exchange or broker that is able and willing to freeze them, or if law enforcement obtains the private keys."
Market Impact
The theft is the latest in a series of major digital asset breaches. Attackers stole $2.9 billion of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 incidents last year, according to TRM Labs. The attack has rattled confidence in the sector, with cryptocurrencies falling on Friday and the total market value of stablecoins declining.
Bernardo Brites, CEO of Trace Finance, noted that typically the proceeds of such hacks can only be laundered in the first few hours. "The more time passes, the less likely they will be able to fold those funds into other exchanges or payment providers — they essentially get blacklisted."
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