North Korea · The Guardian Technology
Binance said it would cover all customer losses as it froze $3bn of the affected assets
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◎ Multiple-sources
Analysts said the exchange had been subjected to an unprecedented attack with “never-seen-before” laundering patterns as the hackers made off with assets worth billions of dollars.
Key facts
- Researchers said the theft was the biggest ever, dwarfing a $1.5bn crypto raid last year and the $1bn taken from Iraq’s central bank by Saddam Hussein in 2003
- Tether, an issuer of stablecoins, which trade at a value fixed to a conventional currency like the US dollar, said it had frozen nearly $1.57bn in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze
- Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, has 335 million registered users globally and had about $162.8bn in assets under custody as of the exchange’s 2025 annual report
- Last year attackers stole $2.9bn worth of cryptocurrency across almost 150 attacks, according to TRM
Summary
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack described as the biggest heist in history, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit. Binance said it would cover all customer losses as it froze $3bn of the affected assets. Researchers said the theft was the biggest ever, dwarfing a $1.5bn crypto raid last year and the $1bn taken from Iraq’s central bank by Saddam Hussein in 2003. Experts attributed the attack, which happened late on Thursday, to North Korean state-backed hackers.