North Korean hackers were behind the $6.3 billion attack on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, according to the U.S. blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs. UNN reports this with reference to Reuters.
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"The attacker withdrew approximately $6.36 billion from Binance wallets across ten blockchains, most of it in approximately 20 minutes," TRM Labs said in a blog post on its website.
"TRM attributes the attack to TraderTraitor, North Korea's elite hacking unit, based on reliable intelligence both on and off the network. We make this conclusion with a high degree of confidence," TRM Labs stated.
According to Bloomberg, on Friday, October 30, Binance Holdings reported that funds totaling $6.3 billion had been affected, of which $3 billion in cryptocurrency had been frozen, and the company suspended all withdrawal operations while it cooperated with law enforcement and completed a security system upgrade. Withdrawals are expected to resume by Sunday, co-founder Yi He said in a post on X.
The company will cover all losses and "users' funds are safe," the statement said.
The hack dealt a blow to a developing industry seeking to expand into traditional finance. Before this, the largest publicly known cryptocurrency hack occurred at the Bybit exchange in February 2025, when attackers stole tokens worth nearly $1.5 billion.
Previously known episodes of theft and fraud among crypto giants such as FTX and Mt. Gox paved the way for prolonged bear markets that the industry had sought to heal from as part of the new era of cryptocurrency regulation promised by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The largest token, Bitcoin, fell amid news of the attack on Binance, dropping below $77,000 for the first time in more than a month. Later during the Asian trading day, it partially recovered its losses, trading at around $78,400 at 2:45 p.m. Singapore time.