Binance says it has covered 95% of $6.3B North Korean crypto hack - Anadolu Ajansı
Binance said Monday it has secured assets covering about 95% of the $6.3 billion in digital currencies stolen in a record-breaking hack attributed to North Korean hackers.
The exchange paused withdrawals on Thursday to investigate the breach and then resumed them on Sunday. Binance's former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, sought to reassure customers as the exchange resumed withdrawals following a temporary pause.
Trust isn't earned by what you say in good times. It's earned by what you do in hard times.
Zhao stepped down as Binance CEO in 2023 after pleading guilty in the US to violating criminal anti-money laundering requirements. He was later pardoned by President Donald Trump and remains Binance's largest shareholder.
Despite Binance's assurances, users withdrew billions of dollars from the platform. The exchange recorded a net outflow of $3.6 billion during the first nine hours after withdrawals resumed, equivalent to about 2% of the $171 billion in assets it manages.
Stolen assets and response
The stolen assets included a range of cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, digital tokens typically designed to maintain a value pegged to the US dollar and backed by assets held by their issuers. Stablecoin companies froze about $3 billion of the affected funds after the breach, preventing the hackers from moving or laundering those assets further.
Binance also bought back various cryptocurrencies on the open market and published evidence based on cryptographically verified internal records and transactions recorded on the public blockchain.
The FBI and independent analysts have attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-linked hacking group that has been associated with several major cryptocurrency thefts.
Industry context
Cryptocurrency exchanges have frequently been targeted by North Korean hackers, with some platforms unable to fully compensate users for their losses. Indian exchange WazirX, for example, lost about $234 million, nearly half of its assets, in a 2024 hack and subsequently underwent restructuring.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has sufficient assets to cover the losses. However, the cryptocurrency industry remains largely unregulated compared with traditional financial institutions and lacks protections such as government-backed deposit insurance available to bank customers.
Much of the analysis of the Binance attack has been conducted by cybersecurity and blockchain firms tracking the movement of funds through the public blockchain. Security firms Elliptic and Chainalysis said the attackers appeared to have moved the stolen funds between multiple wallets in an automated manner, based on the speed and timing of transactions. Some activity continued overnight in Pyongyang.
However, Elliptic researcher Tom Robinson said some transactions appeared to involve human decision-making, including small test transfers made before larger amounts were moved.
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