Binance suffers $6.3b crypto heist
Hackers have stolen an estimated $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in what analysts say could be the biggest cryptocurrency heist on record, according to a Reuters report.
Binance halted withdrawals following the incident and said it would cover the losses using its own funds. The company said it had set aside around $6.34 billion to cover the shortfall and assured customers that their funds were safe.
The exchange expected to resume withdrawals within 48 hours, the report said.
Stablecoin issuers, including Tether and World Liberty Financial, froze around half of the stolen assets. Binance said approximately $3 billion had been located but provided no update on the remaining $3.3 billion.
Most of the theft reportedly took place within about 20 minutes late on Thursday.
Blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis said the attack bore similarities to previous cyberattacks attributed to North Korea, expressing high confidence that the country was responsible.
British blockchain analytics firm Elliptic also linked the attack to North Korea.
North Korea routinely denies such allegations.
Its mission in Geneva and embassy in China did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Binance co-chief executive Richard Teng said the company’s investigation had not yet identified any individual responsible for the attack.
An initial investigation suggested that the breach may have originated from a compromised laptop belonging to one of the company’s engineers. Binance later identified additional potential points of entry, according to the report.
The news sent cryptocurrency prices lower, with Bitcoin falling to a six-week low of $76,368 before markets stabilised.
Tim Sun of HashKey Group told Reuters that the incident could prompt investors to reconsider the security of assets held on centralised cryptocurrency exchanges.
Commenting on the incident, Georgy Kucherin, senior security researcher at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), said cryptocurrency holders had increasingly become targets of cyberattacks, particularly through devices lacking adequate security measures.
He recommended installing security solutions on both personal and corporate devices, noting that even technically proficient users could fall victim to such attacks.
