Hackers steal more than $6 billion from Binance in largest crypto theft on record

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said Friday that hackers stole more than $6 billion from its wallets, in what appears to be the largest crypto theft ever recorded.

Blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs put the losses at about $6.36 billion and said most of the funds left Binance wallets across ten blockchains in roughly 20 minutes. TRM said it believes with high confidence that the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit, and Chainalysis reached a similar conclusion. Binance said only that it is working with law enforcement to identify those responsible.

Binance said it will cover all losses and has set aside more than $6.34 billion of company funds. About $3 billion of the affected assets has been frozen with help from blockchain partners. Deposits were not affected, but withdrawals were suspended and were expected to resume within a day or two. The company said its hot wallet was hit, while most user assets are kept in offline cold wallets.

President Trump said U.S. officials are investigating. Asked whether North Korea was involved, he said, “We’re looking at that.”