O maior roubo cibernético da história: Binance perde US$ 6,3 bi (em 20 minutos)

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a massive cyber heist of $6.3 billion in a 20-minute window. This represents the largest cyber theft ever recorded, occurring at a time when the crypto industry is striving for legitimacy as an alternative to traditional financial institutions. Initial Binance investigations suggest the breach may have involved the hacking of an engineer's laptop, granting an attacker access to perform unauthorized withdrawals.

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs has identified the attack group as the North Korean unit "TraderTraitor," an elite hacker unit reportedly led by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The $6.3 billion stolen in roughly 20 minutes equates to nearly 25% of North Korea's annual GDP. North Korean hackers are also believed to be implicated in a $1.5 billion crypto theft from exchange Bybit, previously the largest such attack.

Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals as it investigates the attack and seeks to identify potential new security vulnerabilities. The recovery of the stolen assets is expected by Sunday. Little is known about the execution method, but AI tools are suspected. In recent days, other attacks hit platforms Polymarket, South Korean investment firms Mirae Asset and Daishin Securities, and Japanese exchange GMO.

Binance is by far the largest global crypto platform, with assets valued at $135 billion. The second-largest, OKX, holds $29 billion in deposits. Stolen funds were in USDC and USDT stablecoins, as well as Bitcoin and Ether. TRM Labs says hackers siphoned off 18,270 Bitcoins and over 420,000 Ether, totaling $2.4 billion. The rest was in stablecoins.

Binance reassured clients that deposited funds are covered by guarantee funds and company capital. The news of the attack hit crypto prices, with Bitcoin falling below $80,000. Bitcoin and other crypto exchange and industry stocks fell in early market open, including Coinbase and Strategy. Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder, announced on X that part of the stolen coins were recovered and a $6.34 billion reserve was set aside to cover the incident, with $5 billion in the same assets stolen.

Other exchanges temporarily halted stablecoin trading to contain the circulation of the hacked coins, freezing $3 billion. Chainalysis, a crypto tracking analysis firm, observed "unprecedented" money laundering patterns. "Thousands of transactions in a short period suggest hackers are using automation to obfuscate the trail of the stolen coins," the firm explained.

"Instead of simply moving the funds, they circulate the assets repeatedly among addresses." The stolen Bitcoins are likely unrecoverable, according to Ballet Global founder Bobby Lee. "They were already lost," Lee said in a Bloomberg interview. "All of them have ended up in the hands of hackers."