Binance has successfully recovered all $6.3 billion in digital assets stolen during a major cyberattack last month. The cryptocurrency exchange announced the full restoration of the stolen funds on Thursday, following a breach that occurred on October 29. Authorities and analysts have linked the attack to North Korea, which targeted a mix of popular and lesser-known cryptocurrencies.
The hackers used sophisticated methods to obscure the stolen funds, transferring tokens through thousands of digital wallets and across multiple blockchains. They also employed memecoins to launder approximately $430,000 of the stolen cryptocurrency. Binance used a combination of company profits and emergency reserves to quickly restore most of the stolen tokens within days of the breach.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that within one week of the hack, the laundering operation utilized more than 20,000 wallets and completed at least 65,000 transactions. This pace equals roughly one new wallet every 30 seconds and one transaction every 10 seconds. Blockchain security firm Chainalysis identified Chinese money-laundering networks as playing a role in converting the stolen funds to cash.
The breach appears to have originated from a phishing attack targeting an engineer through a fraudulent job offer. Binance expressed gratitude to its users for their patience and understanding in a post on X.