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Hackers have stolen more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from digital wallets held at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in what investigators have described as the biggest crypto theft in history.
The attack, which occurred on Thursday, has been linked by multiple blockchain intelligence firms to North Korean cybercriminals, although investigations into the incident are ongoing.
As of Thursday night in the United States, a coalition of cryptocurrency firms had managed to freeze approximately $3 billion of the stolen assets, as investigators raced to trace the funds and prevent the hackers from moving them beyond recovery.
Binance confirmed that its initial investigation traced the breach to an engineer’s laptop, which allegedly enabled the attacker to gain access to a service container and initiate unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
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The exchange said it would absorb all losses arising from the incident using company funds and its emergency assets fund, assuring customers that their deposits remain safe.
Binance suspends withdrawals as investigation begins
In a statement released late Thursday, Binance said it had temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while conducting security checks.
The exchange also revoked the authorisation associated with the affected address and engaged law enforcement agencies and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and recover the stolen cryptocurrency.
- “User funds are safe,” Binance said, adding that it would “cover all losses” arising from the incident.
The scale of the theft has stunned cryptocurrency market participants, given the amount of digital assets involved.
- “It’s the biggest hack in history,” Aravind Srinivasan, head of the systematic over-the-counter business at cryptocurrency market maker GSR, told Reuters.
The incident has also triggered a coordinated recovery effort involving several blockchain analytics companies monitoring the movement of the stolen assets across different networks.
North Korean hackers suspected
Several blockchain intelligence firms have independently attributed the attack to North Korea, raising concerns about the growing involvement of state-linked cybercriminal groups in cryptocurrency theft.
TRM Labs said its assessment was based on what it described as robust on-chain and off-chain intelligence linking the attack to an elite North Korean hacking unit.
Singapore-based blockchain tracking firm Pangolin Intelligence also identified North Korea as the likely source of the attack.
An analyst at the firm said the attribution followed an analysis of transactions associated with the breach and comparisons with information from previous incidents involving the North Korean cyber unit.
The analyst warned that recovering the stolen funds could become increasingly difficult as the hackers attempt to move the assets through a network of money laundering organisations.
- “I think the cat and mouse game has barely begun yet,” the analyst said.
Chainalysis, another blockchain intelligence firm, said it was tracking the stolen cryptocurrency as it moved across multiple blockchain networks, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
A spokesperson for the company said it had “high confidence” North Korea was behind the attack.
The suspected involvement of North Korean hackers is significant because the country has repeatedly been linked to major cryptocurrency thefts, with stolen digital assets reportedly used to generate funds for its activities.
