Binance confirms complex cyberattack that may have compromised $6.3 Billion

Binance confirmed on Friday that it had suffered a "complex attack" that reportedly affected approximately $6.3 billion in funds, in what is considered the largest cryptocurrency theft on record to date.

The platform, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, reported that its investigation uncovered "additional points of compromise," in contrast to its initial findings, which pointed to a single compromised laptop.

"This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it," Binance said via its X account.

The blockchain research firm TRM Labs stated that it has "high confidence" that the attack was orchestrated by a hacker group linked to North Korea, known as TraderTraitor.

TraderTraitor is believed to be linked to the Lazarus Group, an organization that gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures' systems in retaliation for the movie "The Interview," a comedy that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Binance confirmed on its X account for Latin America that "the estimated total impact sits at around $6.3B."

The amount is four times the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit platform in February of last year—an attack that had previously been considered the largest cryptocurrency theft of its kind and was attributed to TraderTraitor.

The company warned that the amount could increase as its teams work with authorities, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms, and other industry partners to track down and freeze additional assets.

So far, Binance reported that approximately $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen.

Billions in assets frozen

At approximately 5 a.m. E.T. on Friday, Binance reported that it expected to resume withdrawals within 45 hours, after announcing that all deposits and withdrawals had been "temporarily suspended."

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the issuer of the USDT cryptocurrency, reported that his company froze approximately $1.6 billion in connection with a possible attack on the exchange platform.

Jeremy Allaire, head of the Circle platform, also announced that his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC.

Both USDT and USDC are stablecoins, known as stablecoins, whose value is pegged to that of a traditional currency—in this case, the U.S. dollar.