FBI Blames North Korea for Record $6.3 Billion Binance Hack as Exchange Covers 90% of Losses

The FBI has formally attributed the largest cryptocurrency theft in history to North Korea, identifying the state-sponsored hacking unit TraderTraitor as responsible for stealing $6.3 billion from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reached the same conclusion with high confidence, citing both on-chain and off-chain evidence, and noting the group had previously been linked to a separate $1.5 billion theft.

The attackers moved approximately $6.3 billion in assets in roughly 20 minutes, rapidly splitting the funds across multiple wallets and converting holdings into Ethereum to obscure their tracks. Investigators believe the hackers gained initial access by compromising a single engineer's laptop, highlighting how a narrow entry point enabled an unprecedented breach. Binance and its blockchain partners have frozen at least $3 billion of the stolen assets on-chain, setting off what researchers describe as a cat-and-mouse race to recover funds before they can be laundered into cash.

Binance said on Saturday that it has replaced approximately 90% of the stolen assets and plans to resume customer withdrawals on Sunday, pending final security checks. The hack raises fresh questions about the growing role of automation in state-sponsored cybercrime, with researchers noting North Korea's increasingly sophisticated methods for executing and covering large-scale financial heists.