Blockchain analysis firm TRM says North Korea behind Binance crypto theft

Binance is investigating a major security incident that its founder indicated appears to be a hack. The cryptocurrency exchange has temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals while security teams conduct checks and work with law enforcement. According to CityNews, cryptocurrency firms froze more than $2.5 billion in funds by Thursday evening, while The Hill reported that assets frozen reached approximately $3 billion.

In response to the incident, Binance stated it would cover all losses and issued messages on X asserting that user funds are completely safe.

The scale of the theft is being estimated by various organizations. TRM Labs reported that an attacker moved approximately $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets across ten blockchains, with much of the movement occurring in about 20 minutes. Chainalysis provided a different estimate, stating the amount stolen was approximately $5.912 billion at the time of the theft.

Security researchers and blockchain analysis firms have linked the incident to North Korean hacking groups. The Korea Times attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, while CoinDesk reported that the Lazarus Group was behind the nearly $6 billion hack.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times, The Hindu - Sci-Tech, CoinDesk, CityNews, The Hill — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.