Suspected North Korean hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance in record crypto heist

Summary

Suspected North Korean hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance in what is described as the world's biggest crypto heist, according to Axios. Binance said late Thursday that its blockchain partners had frozen at least $3 billion of the stolen assets on-chain, and it believes the hackers gained initial access by compromising one engineer's laptop along with other points of breach. Several blockchain investigation firms have tied the hack to TraderTraitor, a group linked to the North Korean government's Lazarus Group collective. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said in a video that the attackers used a self-destruct mechanism that destroyed tooling and traces as they went, making the attack harder to investigate. Axios reports that the attack combined familiar hacking tactics with extraordinary speed and automation, raising fresh questions about how AI could supercharge North Korea's already sophisticated financial theft and cyberattack operations.

Timeline

1. Axios

   31 Oct 2026, 11:15 UTCSource ↗

   Axios reports that the suspected North Korean hackers behind the $6.3 billion Binance theft combined familiar hacking tactics with extraordinary speed and automation, and that Binance said at least $3 billion of the assets had been frozen on-chain so far.