(Reuters)
SINGAPORE/PARIS/BOSTON, Oct 30 – Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, in a theft that analysts blamed on North Korea and said could be the largest financial heist of all time.
Cryptocurrency prices fell on the news, while Binance halted withdrawals and said it would use company funds to cover the losses. Stablecoin issuers including El Salvador-based Tether and the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial froze about half of the stolen assets.
The exchange said customer funds were safe and it was working with partners to freeze some of the affected assets, with about $3 billion located so far. It said earlier on Friday it expected to resume withdrawal services in the next 48 hours. It did not mention the status of the remaining $3.3 billion.
Binance said it had set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses. The company has a $1 billion bitcoin reserve fund designed to protect customer assets in the event of security breaches, according to its website. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said on X that the company owned SpaceX shares worth more than $1 billion.
“We NEVER use any customer funds, so they are not impacted,” Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said in a post, opens new tab on X.
Teng described the breach as a “complex attack” that was not carried out by one person and included a compromised laptop as well as malicious software designed to delete traces and evidence of its activity as it went along, “making it more difficult for us to trace and investigate.”
The hackers were able to manipulate a system used to approve transactions to move money out of a Binance-controlled, internet-connected wallet in a way that did not pass through normal approval controls, Teng said.
Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen nearly $1.57 billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze more than $800 million.
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