North Korea-linked hackers blamed for record $6.3bn Binance breach
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has suffered what analysts say is the biggest crypto theft on record. An estimated $6.3bn (£4.7bn) was taken, according to blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis.
Both firms blame TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean state-backed hacking unit. TRM said it made the attribution with "high confidence". The previous record crypto heist, about $1.5bn in 2025, was also linked to North Korea, according to the FBI.
Binance has not explicitly confirmed how much was stolen. It has suspended all deposits and withdrawals as a precaution while its security teams check systems, secure wallet infrastructure and trace the assets with law enforcement and industry partners. About $3bn has been located and frozen so far. The exchange has given no update on the remaining $3.3bn.
A first investigation suggests the attack began with a compromised laptop belonging to a Binance engineer. The attacker used it to get into an internal system and make unauthorised withdrawals.
Co-founder Yi He said Binance would cover all losses from the hack. Co-chief executive Richard Teng told users: "your money is safe, and we're covering every loss." Founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the company, said on X that as a shareholder he expects user funds to be fully covered.
Stablecoin issuers moved quickly. Tether froze nearly $1.57bn in assets linked to the incident, and Circle froze more than $800m. World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to the Trump family, worked with custodian BitGo to freeze stolen funds. Yi said $27m in stablecoins and about $2m in World Liberty tokens had been frozen.
Markets reacted at once. Bitcoin fell more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368 in early Asian trading. Coinbase shares slid 4.8%, and Strategy fell nearly 6% in extended US trading.
Binance has 335 million registered users and held about $162.8bn in custody, according to its 2025 annual report.
The breach follows a string of attacks on exchanges. In 2025, about $2.9bn was stolen across nearly 150 incidents, according to TRM Labs. In September 2026, Bitget reported losing about $350m. Industry figures warn that AI tools are helping attackers find weaknesses faster than platforms can fix them. Some expect users to move away from smaller exchanges that could not absorb a loss of this size.
