Binance suspends deposits and withdrawals after suspected biggest crypto heist in history
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The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has suspended all deposits and withdrawals and frozen about $3bn in assets after reporting a security breach involving an alleged $6.3bn theft, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit in what could be the biggest cryptocurrency heist in history.
The exchange said its security teams were working round the clock to contain the incident, trace the missing funds and secure its wallet infrastructure, while its co-founder Yi He assured users that the company would cover all losses. However, there was no immediate update on the whereabouts of the remaining $3.3bn.
Blockchain intelligence firms TRM and Chainalysis attributed the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, an elite hacking unit backed by the North Korean state. Pyongyang has a long record of targeting cryptocurrency platforms, and the FBI previously linked the country to the theft of approximately $1.5bn in virtual assets from a Tokyo-based exchange last year, then the largest known crypto heist.
Binance did not explicitly confirm that $6.3bn had been stolen, describing the episode as a security incident, although the two analytical firms maintained that the losses were substantial. An initial investigation indicated that the breach may have originated with a compromised laptop belonging to one of the exchange’s engineers, enabling an attacker to access an internal system and execute unauthorised withdrawals.
“Bottom line – your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss,” Binance co-chief executive Richard Teng said, while the company confirmed that deposits and withdrawals had been temporarily suspended as a precaution.
The news sent tremors through cryptocurrency markets, with Bitcoin falling more than 3 per cent to a six-week low of $76,368 during early Asian trading on Friday. Coinbase shares dropped 4.8 per cent, while Strategy, a major corporate holder of Bitcoin, declined nearly 6 per cent in extended US trading.