Binance hit by $6.3bn hack blamed on North Korea

· Cybersecurity · United States · North Korea

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said $6.3bn of digital assets were affected in the biggest crypto heist on record. Blockchain analytics firms attributed the attack to a North Korean unit known as TraderTraitor. Binance halted withdrawals and froze affected assets, and said it would cover customer losses. By Thursday night a coordinated effort by major crypto platforms had frozen roughly $3bn of the stolen funds. US President Donald Trump said Washington was looking into whether North Korea was behind the heist. Experts say North Korean crypto theft helps fund the country's weapons programmes, generating an estimated half of its foreign currency income. Bitcoin fell about 4%, a smaller drop than some expected. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao asked Elon Musk to stop trolling.

Why it matters：The record heist shows how crypto exchanges remain a major point of failure in digital finance, and how stolen funds feed North Korea's weapons programmes despite sanctions.

Key points

  • Analytics firms linked the attack to a North Korean unit called TraderTraitor
  • About $3bn of the stolen assets had been frozen by Thursday night
  • North Korean crypto theft is estimated to generate half of the country's foreign currency income

Sources (original reporting)

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