FBI confirms North Korea behind stolen billions from Binance in biggest crypto heist in history - Yahoo Finance UK

The FBI confirmed on Saturday that the theft of $6.3bn from Binance was carried out by the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor. The bureau stated that the group is responsible for the $1.5bn Bybit hack last year and is now converting the stolen assets into ethereum.

The hackers manipulated a system used to approve transactions to move money from a Binance-controlled hot wallet without passing through normal controls. The attack was described as a complex operation involving a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to delete evidence.

Binance covers losses

Binance said it has set aside enough of the same digital currency that was stolen to cover 90% of the missing assets. The company pledged to fully reimburse customers and cover the losses from its own funds, allowing clients to trade again within days.

The incident caused a sharp drop in cryptocurrency prices, with Bitcoin hitting a six-week low of $76,368 and Ether falling more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178. The publicly traded stocks of Coinbase, Strategy, and Robinhood also slid on the news.

Binance has a $1bn bitcoin reserve fund designed to protect customer assets in the event of security breaches. The company's founder, Changpeng Zhao, said on X that the company owned SpaceX shares worth more than $1bn.

Largest known theft

Analysts said the heist could be the largest financial theft of all time. British blockchain analysts Elliptic called it almost certainly the single-largest-known theft of any kind. Last year, attackers stole $2.9bn worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.

The FBI has asked crypto exchanges and blockchain analytics companies to block transactions linked to various addresses to prevent the money from being laundered. The bureau expects TraderTraitor will now attempt to convert the assets using DeFi and instant swap services.