Beijing: The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has suffered a massive security breach involving an estimated $6.3 billion worth of digital assets, in what analysts have described as the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.
According to Reuters, Binance has worked with industry partners to freeze approximately $3 billion in affected assets, while the status of the remaining funds remains unclear. The company has assured users that it will cover all hacking-related losses and that customer funds remain safe.
Binance’s preliminary investigation suggests that the attacker may have gained access to an internal system through a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, enabling unauthorised transactions and withdrawals.
The exchange said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys had been leaked. As a precaution, deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended on several networks.
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean hacking group. According to the firm, approximately $6.36 billion was transferred from Binance wallets across ten blockchain networks. Investigations into the incident are continuing.
Following the breach, stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, along with other cryptocurrency firms, moved to freeze assets linked to the attack.
The incident has raised fresh concerns about the security of cryptocurrency exchanges, the protection of customer funds and confidence in the broader digital asset market.