FBI Says North Korea Behind Record $6.3 Billion Binance Crypto Hack

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The FBI has formally blamed North Korea for the theft of more than $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, calling it the largest crypto heist in history. The bureau said the state-backed hacking unit known as TraderTraitor carried out the attack on October 29.

A 20-minute theft

Hackers drained roughly $6.36 billion from Binance wallets across ten blockchain networks, with most of the funds moved in about 20 minutes, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. The FBI said investigators observed TraderTraitor converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum and expects further laundering through decentralized finance and instant-swap services.

Binance said its initial investigation points to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

Funds frozen, customers repaid

Binance and blockchain partners have frozen about $3 billion of the stolen assets on-chain. The exchange said it has already used its own funds to replace 90% of the stolen cryptocurrency and plans to restore withdrawals on Sunday, November 1.

Binance co-founder Yi He said withdrawals were expected to resume by Sunday as security checks continue. The company has pledged to cover all customer losses.

Weapons-funding concerns

Security analysts warned that the proceeds could support North Korea’s weapons programs. TRM’s Ari Redbord said the theft is not ordinary financially motivated crime, but funds that may be used for “weapons proliferation and other destabilizing activity.”

The FBI said TraderTraitor was also responsible for last year’s $1.5 billion Bybit hack. Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis had linked the Binance attack to North Korea “with high confidence” before the FBI’s announcement.