Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suffered the biggest heist in crypto history on Thursday. Hackers stole over $6 billion in digital coins from users’ wallets within just 20 minutes. The attack targeted 10 blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tron, and Solana, according to TRM Labs. The company attributes the breach to TraderTraitor, a hacking unit linked to North Korea.
Binance has partially restored some of the lost funds to affected accounts. The exchange’s initial investigation suggests a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop may have allowed hackers to access a service container. However, Binance later indicated there were additional points of breach. Bitcoin’s price dipped slightly after the news but remained above its summer lows.
North Korea has a history of targeting crypto exchanges since 2017, drawn by lax security and weak regulatory oversight. Binance itself faced regulatory issues in 2023 when founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. The company agreed to pay over $4 billion in penalties, though Zhao was pardoned by President Donald Trump in October 2025.
A United Nations panel concluded in 2024 that crypto hacks account for roughly half of North Korea’s foreign currency income, funding its nuclear weapons program. The latest heist appears to be the country’s biggest windfall yet.