Hackers Steal More Than $6 Billion From Binance in Largest Crypto Heist on Record

Hackers stole more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance on Thursday, in the largest theft of its kind on record, according to blockchain investigators and the exchange.

U.S. blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs said an attacker moved about $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes. TRM attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit, and said it made the judgment with high confidence, based on on-chain and off-chain intelligence.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said its initial investigation found that the attack went through an engineer’s laptop, which gave the attacker access to a service container and allowed unauthorized withdrawal transactions to be submitted.

The company said it will cover all losses from its own funds and an emergency assets fund, and that user funds are safe. It said it temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed, revoked the authorization of the affected addresses, and brought in law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover the funds.

By Thursday night in the United States, firms working with Binance had frozen about $3 billion of the stolen funds, according to CNN. Binance gave no update on the remaining $3.3 billion, Reuters reported.

Investigators point to North Korea

TRM Labs was not alone in its attribution. Pangolin Intelligence, a blockchain-tracking firm based in Singapore, said it also believed a North Korean hacking unit was behind the heist, after comparing the on-chain activity with information from earlier incidents involving the unit. Chainalysis, another crypto-tracking company, told CNN it had high confidence North Korea was behind the attack and was monitoring stolen funds moving across several blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

An analyst with Pangolin Intelligence told CNN that the effort to recover the money had barely started and that North Korea was likely to use a network of money laundering organizations to try to cash out the stolen funds.

CNN said it contacted North Korea’s mission to the United Nations for comment. Pyongyang has denied hacking allegations in the past. CNN also said it requested comment from the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.

A record that tops Bybit

The previous record crypto theft was the $1.5 billion taken from Bybit, another major exchange, in February 2025. North Korean hackers were blamed for that attack as well. According to current and former U.S. and South Korean officials, North Korean hacking teams are a source of revenue for the nuclear-armed, sanctions-hit regime, and reports from the United Nations and private firms say Pyongyang-linked hackers have stolen billions of dollars from banks and cryptocurrency firms in recent years.

The Binance theft also rattled markets. Reuters reported that the hack drove down bitcoin, other cryptocurrency prices, and shares of rival exchange Coinbase.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN and Reuters.