Binance says $6.3 billion stolen in record crypto breach

Hackers removed about $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance hot wallets on Thursday, the exchange and independent blockchain analysts said. Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals and said it would cover all losses through company funds and its user-protection reserve. In an update on Friday, it said about $3 billion had been frozen and more than $6.34 billion had been set aside to replenish the stolen assets.

Reuters described the incident as the largest recorded cryptocurrency theft. TRM Labs traced roughly $6.36 billion across ten blockchains, most of it moved in about 20 minutes. TRM and Chainalysis attributed the attack to a North Korea-linked unit with high confidence, based on on-chain and other intelligence. Binance has not assigned responsibility, and no government attribution had been announced at publication; North Korea routinely denies allegations that it conducts cryptocurrency theft.

Binance initially said a compromised engineer’s laptop may have been involved, then reported additional breach points while saying it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were exposed. That explanation remains preliminary. The central unresolved questions are how the signing infrastructure was compromised, how much can be recovered and whether phased withdrawals resume after security checks.