North Korean Hackers Blamed for Record $6.3 Billion Binance Crypto Theft

Hackers linked to the North Korean regime stole at least $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance wallets, the largest known crypto heist in history, according to security researchers at TRM Labs and Elliptic. About half the funds were frozen as the stolen assets moved across blockchains. Binance said its initial investigation found attackers breached its network through a compromised engineer's laptop, gaining access to a service container and submitting unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The exchange said it found no evidence of private key leaks and has suspended all deposits and withdrawals pending its investigation. It said user funds are safe but did not immediately provide proof, pledging an updated proof of reserves after remediation. TRM attributed the breach to TraderTraitor, a North Korean cell also blamed for a $1.4 billion theft from Bybit in 2025. Elliptic said some stolen funds reached a wallet used in a prior $351 million attack on Bitget this year. The theft took roughly 20 minutes, researchers said.