What to know about the $6.3 bil. hack on Binance, likely the biggest-ever crypto theft - The Korea Times

The exchange said it has reserved more than $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the stolen assets and was beginning to recover funds for users. Binance worked with blockchain partners to freeze roughly $3 billion in affected assets.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the company is working nonstop to resolve the issue, posting a video to X to share the message.

In an exchange with reporters at the White House, President Donald Trump said U.S. officials were investigating the hack and were looking into potential North Korean involvement.

Binance said an initial investigation suggested a compromised laptop, but a subsequent review uncovered additional points of breach.

North Korean hackers suspected

U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm TRM attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which it described as North Korea's elite hacking unit. The firm stated it made this judgment with high confidence.

TRM reported that an attacker moved approximately USD 6.36 billion out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes. Several features of the attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists.

Chainalysis also believed the Binance hack was likely carried out by TraderTraitor, with co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin stating this on X.

A Binance spokesperson said the company is working closely with law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of the criminals and bring them to justice.

Experts have said North Korea turned to crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities in recent years as a source of badly needed foreign currency to support its troubled economy and fund its nuclear program.

In December 2022, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korean hackers had stolen an estimated 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets over the past five years, more than half of it in 2022 alone.

Largest theft on record

While about half of the stolen assets were frozen, there is evidence that the hackers are already transferring and converting some of the unrecovered funds.

Cryptocurrency analyst Garrick Hileman said the hackers are likely using mixers or tumblers to launder the stolen goods, mixing them with other cryptos to make them harder to track.

TRM and several other crypto firms and experts have said the hack represents the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.

In February of last year, another cryptocurrency exchange, Bybit, suffered a $1.5 billion hit when it was hacked. The FBI said North Korea and TraderTraitor were responsible for that hack.

TRM listed the Bybit hack when it referenced similarities between the Binance hack and previous attacks linked to TraderTraitor.