North Korean hackers are blamed for stealing $6.3bn from crypto giant Binance in 20 MINUTES in a record heist
Binance halted all withdrawals after a hack through a single engineer's laptop drained an estimated $6.3bn — surpassing the previous record $1.5bn Bybit breach in 2025.Around $3bn of the $6.3bn stolen from Binance has already been frozen, with Tether and Circle locking more than $2.3bn in stablecoin assets connected to the breach.
North Korea's elite TraderTraitor hacking unit stripped Binance wallets across ten blockchains on Thursday evening, with most of the $6.3bn extracted in a 20-minute window beginning at 20:05 GMT. Investigators think the attackers gained access through a compromised engineer's laptop, which enabled them to push through unauthorised withdrawal transactions. Binance has halted withdrawals and says customers will face no losses, with the shortfall to be met from its emergency fund and corporate assets.
Bitcoin fell more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368 and Coinbase shares dropped 4.8% as markets reacted immediately.
The theft eclipses the previous record — the $1.5bn taken from Dubai exchange Bybit in 2025, an attack the FBI also attributed to North Korean hackers.
Binance says it has tracked down roughly $3bn of the stolen funds so far, but has provided no update on the whereabouts of the remaining $3.3bn.
