TRM Labs attributes the Binance hack to North Korea-based TraderTraitor, which drained ~$6.36B from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, mostly in ~20 minutes (Tom Westbrook/Reuters)

US blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs has attributed a $6.3 billion raid on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance to North Korea-based TraderTraitor. The hack reportedly drained funds from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, primarily within a 20-minute window. According to Hindustan Times - World News, Binance's initial investigation suggests the incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

Binance has stated that it will cover all hacking losses using the company's funds and the SAFU fund, maintaining that user funds are safe. Regarding the status of frozen assets, RTE News reported that Binance froze $3 billion in crypto assets as part of the investigation, while the Japan Times reported the company had frozen more than $2.5 billion. Binance noted it found no evidence of a private key leak and plans to publish an updated Proof of Reserves once remediation is complete.

The incident caused immediate market volatility, with Bitcoin and ether both dropping approximately 2%, according to RTE News. Cointelegraph reports that Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick suggested the breach could accelerate a shift in trading toward decentralized exchanges, potentially benefiting Uniswap.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Cointelegraph, RTE News, Hindustan Times - World News, Japan Times — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.