North Korea hackers blamed for record $6B crypto theft - WORLD News Group
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suspended withdrawals Thursday after hackers stole $6 billion from its digital wallets, identified as the largest crypto theft on record.
Blockchain intelligence company TRM determined that an attacker moved about $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains. The firm attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, North Korea’s elite hacking unit, based on robust on and off-chain intelligence.
Binance initially announced a potential security issue and advised users to be wary of links or messages that could be potential scams. The exchange later clarified that the security incident involved a compromised laptop, though more points of breach were identified.
The attacks stopped once Binance paused withdrawal services and froze around $3 billion worth of assets. The exchange said issuers, blockchain intelligence firms, and industry partners are helping them to trace, freeze, and recover additional funds.
Exchange covers losses
Binance reassured users that their funds were safe and said they would cover all losses from its Secure Asset Fund for Users and from company funds. The exchange said deposits remained unaffected and expected to resume withdrawal services in 45 hours.
Binance said it had already allocated more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the incident.
Of that total, $5 billion is already held in the same tokenized assets that were affected. The exchange is purchasing the remaining funds, but it will take time because some tokens may have low liquidity.
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