Gone in 20 minutes: How the biggest heist in crypto history unfolded

In a record-breaking heist, hackers hijacked $6.3 billion from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, in a digital asset theft. Binance initially suspected a compromised laptop as the point of breach, but subsequent investigation revealed a more extensive compromise of their transaction authorization infrastructure.

The attackers managed to drain wallets within a 20-minute window, beginning shortly after 2000 GMT on Thursday. This swift operation allowed them to shift the stolen funds away from Binance and stablecoin issuers, who had frozen roughly half of the stolen assets, including major stablecoins like Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. Identifying the perpetrators has been challenging, as investigators have found similarities to previous North Korean hacker operations.

However, Binance's co-CEO, Richard Teng, stated that losses would be covered by the company's secure asset fund and resources. About half of the stolen assets were stablecoins, which have since been frozen by issuers, limiting the attackers' ability to convert them to cash. Despite this, about $2.4 billion worth of bitcoin and ether remains out of reach for Binance.

The market is currently observing unusual laundering patterns, with the attackers repeatedly circulating funds among various addresses. Cryptocurrency prices and the total market value of stablecoins fell in response to the attack, reflecting a decline in confidence among investors.