Cryptocurrency exchange Binance freezes assets after $6.3bn heist

Hackers stole $6.3 billion (€5.63bn) from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in what analysts say is the biggest crypto hack ever, an attack that could prompt investors to rethink the risks ‌of owning digital assets.The hackers behind the raid were from North Korea, according to US blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis. The attackers targeted Binance wallets on 10 blockchains and shifted most of the funds in about 20 minutes, TRM Labs said in a statement.Binance said it worked with ​partners to freeze the affected assets with about $3 billion located so far. It did not mention the status of the remaining $3.3 billion, and its co-founder Yi He said the exchange would cover “all hacking losses”.Binance said its deposits were unaffected and it expects to resume withdrawal services in the next 48 hours.READ MORETRM said several features of the attack matched earlier heists linked to North Korea, including a 2025 hack of crypto exchange Bybit that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had attributed to Pyongyang.“We make this judgment with high confidence,” it said in a statement.North Korea’s mission in ​Geneva and its embassy in China did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.The incident could be the world’s biggest crypto heist, according to analytics firm Chainalysis and other industry experts.“It’s the biggest hack in history,” said Aravind Srinivasan, head of large crypto market maker GSR’s systematic OTC business.Digital-asset hardware wallet company Ballet Global Inc founder Bobby Lee said the Bitcoin stolen in the hack of Binance’s crypto exchange will probably be impossible to recover.“That’s gone,” he told Bloomberg on Friday. “The Bitcoin that’s lost, that’s all gone out into the hackers’ hands.”Markets reacted ⁠immediately in Asian trading on Friday.Bitcoin dropped more than 3 per cent to a six-week low of $76,368 and ether fell more than 3 per cent to a two-month low of $2,178. BNB, a token originally launched as ‌Binance Coin ‌that ​can be used to pay Binance fees, was down 5 per cent over the past 24 hours at $709.70, according to market aggregator CoinGecko.Shares in crypto exchange Coinbase Global slid 4.8 per cent while those of bitcoin buyer Strategy fell nearly 6 per cent in extended US trading.Laptop hackAn initial investigation suggested the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers, which ⁠let an attacker gain access to one of its systems and make unauthorized withdrawals, Binance said.“The ​incident stems from multiple factors. Our security team is tracing the full attack path through the compromised computer which may ​be the entry point of the incident,” Binance said.Beyond the potential loss of assets, the security breach was likely to have wider ramifications for crypto, which had already been under pressure due to higher US interest rates and softer demand from ‌exchange-traded fund buyers, analysts said.“It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors ​to reassess the safety of assets held on centralized exchanges, as well as counterparty, solvency and liquidity risks,” said Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, based in Hong Kong.Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and ⁠trade digital assets, has 335 million registered users globally and had about $162.8 billion in assets under ⁠custody as of the exchange’s 2025 annual report. - Reuters