Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance late Thursday, emptying a Binance-controlled internet-connected wallet in about 20 minutes by manipulating the transaction approval system to bypass normal controls. Analysts call it potentially the largest financial heist of all time. 23b7
Blockchain firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis say they are highly confident it was North Korea. TRM attributed the attack to North Korea's elite hacking unit, noting the method mirrored the February 2025 Bybit heist that the FBI attributed to North Korea — ordering Binance wallets to empty directly into hacker-controlled wallets. 23b7
Emergency response is unprecedented:
*$3B already frozen.* Tether froze nearly $1.57B, Circle froze more than $800M, plus World Liberty Financial and others. Binance says about $3 billion has been located so far. 23b7
US law enforcement is in. Binance is working with the FBI and US Secret Service. The FBI says it is engaged with partners to understand scope and coordinate investigation. The Secret Service is working with Circle to trace and recover funds. 23b7
Binance says customer funds are safe and it has set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover losses, expects withdrawals to resume in 48 hours. The exchange has 335M users and $162.8B under custody. 23b7