Key Takeaways
- • Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, halted all deposits and withdrawals on Thursday after hackers stole more than $6 billion in digital coins, which the company estimates at a total impact of about $6.3 billion, according to the New York Times.
- • Binance said it will cover all losses and that customers would be made whole, and it has coordinated with other crypto firms to freeze roughly $3 billion in assets swept up in the breach.
- • TRM Labs, a crypto research firm, assessed with "high confidence" that the attack was the work of North Korea's elite hacking unit, and estimated about $2.4 billion had been moved beyond any issuer's reach.
- • Binance said attackers may have compromised an engineer's laptop, enabling unauthorized withdrawals; the exact nature of the attack was not immediately clear.
Summary
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Thursday that it had halted withdrawals after being attacked by hackers who made off with more than $6 billion in digital coins. The incident may be the largest crypto heist on record. Founder Changpeng Zhao said the event "does look like a hack," while a company spokesman described it as a "security incident." Binance said it had temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals across the platform.
The spokesman said the "estimated total impact" was around $6.3 billion and that Binance "will cover all losses." The exchange said it had coordinated with other crypto firms to freeze about $3 billion in assets that were swept up in the hack. In a statement, the spokesman said attackers may have compromised an engineer's laptop, which led to unauthorized withdrawals. The exact nature of the attack was not immediately clear.
TRM Labs, a crypto research firm, attributed the attack to "North Korea's elite hacking unit," stating it had "high confidence" in the assessment based on features resembling previous thefts. The firm estimated the hackers had moved about $2.4 billion in crypto coins "beyond any issuer's reach."
The spokesman said Binance teams were "working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly" and were working with law enforcement partners to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The incident comes amid a string of damaging cyberattacks across the crypto industry, a context the publication noted with reference to Bybit, a Binance rival that lost $1.5 billion in February 2025.
The spokesman said the "estimated total impact" was around $6.3 billion and that Binance "will cover all losses." The exchange said it had coordinated with other crypto firms to freeze about $3 billion in assets that were swept up in the hack. In a statement, the spokesman said attackers may have compromised an engineer's laptop, which led to unauthorized withdrawals. The exact nature of the attack was not immediately clear.
TRM Labs, a crypto research firm, attributed the attack to "North Korea's elite hacking unit," stating it had "high confidence" in the assessment based on features resembling previous thefts. The firm estimated the hackers had moved about $2.4 billion in crypto coins "beyond any issuer's reach."
The spokesman said Binance teams were "working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly" and were working with law enforcement partners to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The incident comes amid a string of damaging cyberattacks across the crypto industry, a context the publication noted with reference to Bybit, a Binance rival that lost $1.5 billion in February 2025.
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