Binance Heist Linked to North Korean Hackers

Investigators have linked the roughly $6.3 billion theft from Binance—the largest reported cryptocurrency heist—to TraderTraitor, a North Korea-linked hacking group, citing similarities to earlier attacks and connections among stolen funds. Assets were moved from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, mostly within about 20 minutes; one analysis says attackers used prearranged authorizations and Ethereum’s EIP-7702 feature to divert funds from a hot wallet. Binance says the incident involved multiple points of breach, but its investigation has not established the full sequence and has found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. Binance and its partners have frozen roughly $3 billion in affected assets, though some funds were moved into assets that issuers cannot freeze. Binance suspended withdrawals, said it was upgrading withdrawal security, and pledged to cover customer losses with its SAFU fund and company resources; the breach rattled cryptocurrency markets and renewed scrutiny of exchange security.