Inside the largest crypto hack on record: How attackers breached Binance for $6.3 billion
·2 min read
Compiled by KHAO Editorial
— aggregated from 9 sources.
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Binance was hit Thursday by the largest crypto hack to date, with blockchain investigators estimating that more than $6 billion in assets were stolen.
Key facts
Elliptic said the attacker deposited $59.9 million in stolen USDT into Aave as collateral and borrowed 19,762 ETH
Binance has approximately $5 billion in affected assets, with another $1.3 billion being acquired through market and OTC channels as part of its commitment to cover the losses
Chainalysis, Elliptic, and TRM attributed the attack to North Korean hacking groups, with TRM explicitly linking it to the same group connected to the $1.5 billion Bybit hack
The attacker began staging at least 36 hours before the theft, funding an operational wallet with small Tornado Cash withdrawals, according to TRM Labs
Summary
Binance said its initial investigation pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop and unauthorized access to a service container. The attacker began staging at least 36 hours before the theft, funding an operational wallet with small Tornado Cash withdrawals, according to TRM Labs. On Ethereum, the attacker used EIP-7702 to turn a Binance hot wallet into a sweeper controlled by the attacker. Elliptic's analysis suggests the attacker retained access beyond the initial exploit, using one compromised wallet's owner rights to withdraw funds from another Binance wallet and repeatedly sweep new deposits.