Recap: How Binance’s record $6.3B hack unfolded

On Thursday, hackers stole approximately $6.3 billion from Binance, marking the largest cryptocurrency theft in history. Industry partners froze around $3 billion of the affected assets, leaving customers to wait for withdrawals to resume. Binance's co-CEO Richard Teng later revealed that the breach was more complex than initially thought, with the attacker using multiple points of entry rather than a single compromised engineer's laptop.

The attack was attributed to North Korean-backed hackers by onchain investigators. Binance set aside over $6.34 billion to cover the losses, including $5 billion held in the stolen tokens. The theft has been linked to the Ethereum's EIP-7702 upgrade, which may have facilitated the theft by allowing attackers to bypass security measures.

The attacker used a "self-destruct mechanism" to remove evidence, making the investigation more challenging. Chainalysis observed thousands of rapid transactions that suggested automated laundering efforts. Binance's withdrawals were suspended, and the exchange aimed to resume them within 40 hours of the update.