Reported by The Guardian
Binance exchange says it will cover customer losses as it scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack described as the biggest heist in history, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit.
Binance said it would cover all customer losses as it froze $3bn of the affected assets.
More from the original report
Analysts said the exchange had been subjected to an unprecedented attack with “never-seen-before” laundering patterns as the hackers made off with assets worth billions of dollars.
Researchers said the theft was the biggest ever, dwarfing a $1.5bn crypto raid last year and the $1bn taken from Iraq’s central bank by Saddam Hussein in 2003 . “This is almost certainly the largest theft of any kind in history,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist at crypto consultancy Elliptic.
Experts attributed the attack, which happened late on Thursday, to North Korean state-backed hackers. North Korea has a history of crypto hacking and was behind the theft of about $1.5bn in virtual assets from a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange last year, according to the FBI, in the previous record crypto heist.
TRM, a crypto analysis firm, blamed the attack with “high confidence” on TraderTraitor, North Korea’s elite hacking unit, as did Elliptic and another research outfit, Chainalysis.
An initial investigation suggested the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of Binance’s engineers, which let an attacker gain access to one of its systems and make unauthorised withdrawals, Binance said. The company added later that there had been “additional points of breach” in a sophisticated attack.
Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, has 335 million registered users globally and had about $162.8bn in assets under custody as of the exchange’s 2025 annual report.
Richard Teng, a co-chief executive of Binance, said: “Bottom line – your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss.” Teng said Binance had set aside $6.34bn to cover stolen assets.
The company was founded by the Chinese-born entrepreneur Changpeng Zhao, now a Canadian and United Arab…