North Korea Hackers Blamed for Audacious $6 Billion Crypto Theft

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is trying to recover more than $6 billion in stolen funds from a hack experts linked to North Korea.The company, on Friday, said about half of the $6.34 billion of stolen funds had been frozen through the cooperation of other companies in the industry. “We are working with partners and law enforcement to recover the frozen assets,” Binance said in an X post.Binance said it temporarily suspended withdrawals on multiple networks as a precaution. It has promised to cover all customer losses. “User funds are safe,” the company said. It is expected to resume allowing withdrawals in the next day or two.Binance’s initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve an engineer’s laptop being compromised, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.The cryptocurrency theft — believed to be the largest ever — took place over a 20-minute period on Thursday, blockchain analytics firm TRM stated in a blog post. TRM attributes the attack to TraderTraitor, North Korea’s elite hacking unit, based on its intelligence. “We make this judgment with high confidence,” TRM said.The FBI has blamed TraderTraitor for several other hacks including a $1.5 billion theft from Bybit in February 2025. That hack was the largest crypto theft on record before this latest, much larger theft.In a 2024 cryptocurrency theft, the FBI says a North Korean cyber criminal masqueraded as a recruiter on LinkedIn and contacted an employee at a cryptocurrency wallet software company. The criminal sent the employee a URL linked to a malicious programming script under the guise of a pre-employment test. That code compromised their computer and it was later used to carry out the theft.Pyongyang-linked hackers have been linked to cryptocurrency thefts since 2017 and more than a third of all funds stolen in 2023 were blamed on North Korea. TRM says North Korean hackers have continued to evolve their targets and techniques to conduct operations.TRM says the hackers operate under unique circumstances because they are based almost exclusively inside North Korea or friendly third countries, and face little risk of arrest or extradition. Because of that, they have little motivation to attempt the anonymity that other hackers require.Binance has begun recovering affected assets for users and continues to work with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace, freeze and recover additional funds.“We will weather this storm. Thank you for the support,” the company stated. The loss is small in relation to Binance’s total assets, which top $150 billion.“Many industry friends and even competitors (including some previously-not-so-friendly ones) provided very much needed help,” Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, stated in an X post. “It hurts, but we will survive,” he added.President Trump, in 2025, pardoned Mr. Zhao. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to one charge related to Binance’s role in facilitating transactions for terrorists and other criminals. Mr. Zhao was released from prison in 2024 after serving a four-month sentence.Binance was disclosed to be behind a trading platform that helped boost a cryptocurrency coin launched by two of Mr. Trump’s sons, Don Jr. and Eric.

North Korea Hackers Blamed for Audacious $6 Billion Crypto Theft

North Korea Hackers Blamed for Audacious $6 Billion Crypto Theft

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