In a statement addressing the breach, Binance described the incident as a sophisticated attack and said it was working closely with law enforcement agencies to investigate and recover the stolen funds. The incident has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency market.
The exchange said on Friday that customer deposits remained unaffected and that it was collaborating with industry partners to freeze some of the compromised assets. So far, approximately $3 billion has reportedly been located.
However, Binance suspended withdrawals for 24 hours as a precautionary measure. The company did not provide details about the whereabouts of the remaining $3.3 billion but assured users that it would cover all financial losses resulting from the attack.
US-based blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the breach to TraderTraitor, an elite hacking group allegedly linked to North Korea. The firm expressed high confidence in its assessment, citing similarities between the Binance incident and previous cyberattacks associated with North Korean hackers.
According to TRM Labs, the attacker transferred approximately $6.36 billion from Binance wallets across ten different blockchains, with the majority of the transactions taking place within roughly 20 minutes.
If confirmed, the incident would surpass the $1.5 billion theft from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit last year, which was also attributed to North Korean-linked hackers, making it the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.
The scale of the incident has prompted strong reactions across the financial and cryptocurrency industries. One industry insider described the breach to Sky News as “the largest bank heist in human history.”
Similarly, Aravind Srinivasan of market-making firm GSR called it “the biggest hack in history.”
Chainalysis, another leading blockchain analytics company, also pointed to TraderTraitor as the likely perpetrator. Its co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Levin, shared the company’s assessment on X, further strengthening suspicions of North Korean involvement.
