Binance reports $6.3 billion crypto theft blamed on North Korea
Original title: 'Elite North Korean hackers' blamed for $6.3B Binance hack
Binance froze withdrawals, says about $3 billion is frozen on-chain, and pledges to cover the losses.
A Guardian live blog reports that more than $6.3 billion in digital assets was taken from Binance, apparently after an engineer's laptop was hacked. Co-CEO Richard Teng said there is no evidence of a wallet private-key leak, deposits still work, and withdrawals were suspended during a security revamp. Chainalysis assessed the theft was likely North Korea's TraderTraitor. TRM published a chain breakdown led by about $3.79 billion on Ethereum, and Yi He said Binance would cover all losses.
Unconfirmed: North Korean or TraderTraitor attribution is Chainalysis's assessment, the laptop vector is described as apparent, and stated totals differ slightly.
- Teng estimates impact at about $6.3 billion, with about $3 billion frozen.
- Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin cited about $6.4 billion and TraderTraitor links.
- TRM lists about $3.79 billion in Ethereum, $1.47 billion in Bitcoin, and $628 million on Tron.
- Binance revoked affected address authorizations and is working with law enforcement.
- Bitcoin fell 2.35% in 24 hours after the theft was reported, to $77,940.
Impact: About $6.3 billion in crypto assets taken
- Threat actors
- TraderTraitor
- Victims
- Binance
- Organizations
- ChainalysisTRM
- Countries
- North Korea
From the original article
8 min read at theguardian.com
The crypto industry is reeling from a massive hack at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Digital assets worth more than $6. 3bn (£4.
By tosh · theguardian.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.