Binance Says $6.3 Billion Stolen in October 29 Hack; North Korea's TraderTraitor Unit Blamed

Binance said about $6.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen Oct. 29 from its transaction wallets, the largest crypto heist on record. The exchange froze all withdrawals and roughly $3 billion in assets on the public blockchain while it investigates the breach. U.S. blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, North Korea's premier hacking unit, citing on- and off-chain intelligence. Hackers exploited Binance's signing infrastructure after smaller rehearsal thefts in the preceding 36 hours, TRM said. Issuers froze all but $60 million of the assets within about an hour, though thieves swapped $60 million of stolen Tether for Ether on Aave. Analysts warned exchanges remain prime targets and that AI will enable larger attacks. "An exchange account isn't a bank account," said David Gokhshtein, founder of Gokhshtein Media, urging users to hold long-term assets in self-custody wallets. Unlike bank deposits, crypto is not federally insured.