Binance freezes half of $6.3bn stolen in record crypto hack

Binance says it has frozen roughly $3 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen in what is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency hack on record. The breach first appeared to involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, but later investigation revealed a wider intrusion that used a self‑destruct mechanism to erase tools and traces. Around half of the stolen assets are now secured, while the rest remain in the hands of unidentified hackers. The US Secret Service announced it is working around the clock to identify, freeze, trace and recover the funds, and the FBI is also assisting. Binance’s US‑facing platform was not affected, and the firm told users their money is safe and that deposits remain unaffected. Co‑CEO Richard Teng said the attack was not carried out by a single person and highlighted the multiple points of breach. Analytics firms including TRM Labs and Chainalysis said they have high confidence that a North Korean unit, linked to the Lazarus Group, was behind the hack, noting similarities to the $1.5 billion Bybit breach in 2025. The theft involved US‑linked stablecoins such as Tether and Circle. Bitcoin fell 5% to $76,800 after the news, while Coinbase dropped 12% and Robinhood slipped 7.8%. Binance, founded in China in 2017, now serves over 300 million users and held more than $160 billion in assets under custody in 2024. Legal analyst Daniel Tunkel warned that customers may need to pursue litigation to enforce any promises of loss coverage.

Context

North Korea faces heavy sanctions and has turned to cybercrime, especially cryptocurrency theft, to generate foreign currency. Repeated hacks over the past five years have shown that state‑linked groups like Lazarus can move billions quickly, putting exchanges such as Binance under heightened scrutiny.