Binance Reports $6.3 Billion Crypto Theft

Binance said an October 29 theft caused an estimated $6.3 billion impact, the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, after wallets across 10 blockchains were drained in about 20 minutes. Its preliminary investigation found that a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop may have provided access to a service container; the investigation is ongoing, and Binance said it found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. Binance and its partners froze about $3 billion in assets, though the funds are not necessarily recovered, and the exchange pledged to cover losses with its SAFU reserve and company funds. Withdrawals were suspended for security checks, with Binance planning a phased restart and an updated proof of reserves. The FBI and Secret Service are involved in investigative and recovery efforts, while analytics firms attributed the attack with high confidence to North Korea’s TraderTraitor or Lazarus group; Binance has not confirmed the attribution. The attack rattled crypto markets, with Bitcoin falling to a six-week low and more than $1.6 billion in leveraged positions liquidated.