Binance confirms $6.3 billion stolen, via one engineer's laptop

Binance confirms $6.3B stolen and says it will cover all losses.

Binance disclosed that $6.3 billion in crypto was stolen from Binance.com. Binance.us said it was not affected. Co-CEO Richard Teng said losses will be covered from the emergency reserve first, then company funds, per BBC News.

Binance's initial investigation suggested the incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which may have given an attacker access to a service container where unauthorized withdrawals were submitted. A later statement said the probe found additional points of breach. According to TRM Labs' analysis, reported by Wired, most of the funds moved in about 20 minutes on October 29 across at least ten blockchains.

TRM Labs and Chainalysis say North Korea's TraderTraitor group may be behind it, and Elliptic says North Korea is likely responsible. That is the tracing firms' assessment. Neither Binance nor law enforcement has named any such link, and Teng said the investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual. Frozen-asset figures vary: about $3B per The Verge and BBC, $2.8B per Elliptic, and $2.4B in Tom's Hardware's summary, which also gives $5.6B as the amount stolen.

Binance suspended all deposits and withdrawals and said it was on track to resume withdrawals in 45 hours. Watch for that restart and any official attribution.

The facts we checked

According to BBC News, The Verge and Wired, citing Binance statements and analyses by TRM Labs, Chainalysis and Elliptic. The North Korea link is the tracing firms' assessment, not confirmed by Binance or law enforcement.

1. Binance disclosed that $6.3 billion in crypto was stolen from its global exchange, Binance.com; Binance.us said it was not affected.Fact · The Verge, BBC News
2. Co-CEO Richard Teng said Binance will cover all losses, using its emergency reserve first and company funds for the rest.Fact · BBC News
3. "Our initial investigation suggests this security incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop." - Richard Teng, Binance co-CEOQuote · BBC News
4. Binance said the laptop gave an attacker access to a service container, where unauthorized withdrawal transactions were submitted.Fact · BBC News, The Verge
5. "Our initial investigation suggested that the security incident may have involved a compromised laptop, however, our subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach." - Binance statementQuote · Wired, The Verge
6. According to TRM Labs' analysis, most of the stolen crypto was taken in about 20 minutes on October 29, from Binance wallets across at least ten blockchains.Reported · Wired
7. TRM Labs and Chainalysis say they believe TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group, may be behind the attack. Elliptic says North Korea is likely responsible but has not tied it to that group.Alleged · Wired
8. Neither Binance nor law enforcement has named any suspected links to North Korean hackers.Fact · Wired
9. "Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual." - Richard Teng, Binance co-CEOQuote · The Verge
10. The BBC reports North Korea has always denied involvement in earlier attacks attributed to this cluster. Binance did not directly respond to BBC questions about a North Korea link.Reported · BBC News
11. Around $3 billion of the stolen assets has reportedly been frozen so far.Figure · The Verge, BBC News
12. Elliptic's Tom Robinson says about $2.8 billion, around 44 percent, has been frozen, mostly stablecoins. He says the remaining $3.3 billion is mostly Bitcoin, Ether and XRP, which cannot be frozen.Reported · Wired
13. Tom's Hardware's feed summary gives different figures: $5.6 billion stolen and $2.4 billion in assets being frozen.Figure · Tom's Hardware
14. Binance suspended all deposits and withdrawals and said it was on track to resume withdrawals in 45 hours.Reported · BBC News

Sources

• The New York TimesBinance Suspends Withdrawals After Crypto Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion
• BBC NewsWhat we know so far about the Binance hack
• The VergeBinance hackers stole $6.3 billion in record-breaking crypto heist
• WiredThe $6.3 Billion Binance Hack Was Pulled Off in Just 20 Minutes
• Tom's HardwareSuspected North Korean hackers steal $5.6 billion in crypto in record-breaking cryptocurrency heist, Binance withdrawals frozen
• BBC NewsCrypto giant Binance hit by $6.3bn hack suspected to be largest in history