WASHINGTON — Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is cooperating with law enforcement agencies in several countries, among them the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, after thieves drained about $6.3 billion in digital assets from its wallets, the largest crypto theft on record, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Two blockchain analytics companies have pointed to North Korea. TRM Labs said it has high confidence the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, a state-backed North Korean hacking unit the FBI previously blamed for the $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit exchange in February 2025. Chainalysis reached a similar conclusion, citing links to earlier attacks.
TRM Labs estimates roughly $6.36 billion moved out of Binance across 10 different blockchains, most of it in a span of about 20 minutes. The firm said the groundwork started at least 36 hours earlier, when the attackers used the Tornado Cash mixing service to fund the wallets they would use.
Binance paused deposits and withdrawals while it investigates and has promised to cover all customer losses. About $3 billion of the stolen assets has been frozen so far.
Freezing funds is only the first step. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC can be frozen and reissued by the companies that control them, which makes them the easiest to return. Bitcoin and ether have no central issuer, so investigators have to trace them across public ledgers and try to catch them when they reach a cooperating exchange. Analysts say a full recovery could take months or years.
One digital asset strategist assessed that the breach does not appear to threaten the exchange’s solvency. Bitcoin slipped below $78,000 on Friday as markets absorbed the news.
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