Hacker lancieren bisher grössten Angriff auf Krypto-Börse Binance: Mehr als 6 Milliarden Dollar sind betroffen

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has been targeted by hackers in what appears to be the largest crypto theft in history, with losses estimated at over $6.3 billion. A significant portion of the stolen funds, around half, has been frozen by Binance. The company's co-founder, Yi He, stated that the company will cover all losses resulting from the attack.

Following the incident, Binance halted all trading on its platform, while deposits have resumed and withdrawals may become possible within the next 48 hours.

Initial investigations from Binance suggest the security incident may be linked to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. No evidence has been found of any wallet private keys being compromised. Binance, which controls about 30-40% of the cryptocurrency market with an estimated 160 billion dollar value, is a popular choice among crypto users due to its low fees and high liquidity.

The exchange offers a wide range of tradable coins, totaling around 900 different cryptocurrencies. The ownership structure of Binance is not publicly known, but Changpeng Zhao, the company's founder, is believed to hold around 90% of the shares. Despite past violations of anti-money laundering laws, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison and stepped down as CEO in 2024. However, he remains the key decision-maker within the company.

American blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis attribute the attack to a North Korean elite hacker group. The hackers targeted Binance wallets across ten different blockchains, transferring the majority of the funds within twenty minutes. Other crypto firms such as the Circle Internet Group, Tether, and Ripple have also had assets frozen as a result of the breach, with Circle estimating the value at $800 million.

Following the Binance attack, stocks of both companies dropped by 5% in after-hours trading. The markets reacted immediately to the incident on Friday morning, with Bitcoin falling more than three percent to a six-week low of $76,368, and Ether dropping more than three percent to a two-month low of $2,178. The BNB token, used to pay fees on the Binance platform, fell by more than five percent within 24 hours.