Binance reports $6.3bn hack, possibly the largest ever

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Thursday that a hack has affected $6.3bn (£4.7bn) of digital assets, a sum that could make it the biggest theft in crypto history.

According to the company, about half of the compromised assets have been frozen, but many remain in the possession of the attackers. Binance added that it will “cover all losses”.

Preliminary investigations point to a compromised engineer’s laptop that allowed unauthorised withdrawals.

Two analytics firms have linked the incident to a North Korean hacking unit known as TraderTraitor. The attribution follows a pattern similar to the $1.5bn Bybit hack in 2025, which the firms also tied to the same group.

TRM Labs, an AI‑powered investigations company, noted that several elements of the Binance breach resemble earlier North Korean‑linked incidents. Its global head of policy, Ari Redbord, told the BBC the hack is a “watershed moment” unlike anything the industry has seen, and that the attacker still holds a large sum of stolen assets.

Chainalysis echoed the assessment, stating it has “high confidence” that the North Korean group is involved. Eric Jardine, Chainalysis’ Head of Research, warned that exchanges remain attractive targets because of the sheer value of assets they hold.

Western security agencies have previously said that stolen crypto funds are used to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, a claim the regime has denied.

Binance said it is working closely with law‑enforcement partners to confirm the criminals’ identities and bring them to justice. The company did not directly respond to BBC queries about a direct link to North Korea.

Binance.com was the platform affected; Binance.US, which serves American residents, confirmed that its platform was not impacted by the breach.

The incident underscores the scale of risk facing major crypto platforms.