Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, disclosed a $6 billion crypto hack on Thursday, potentially the largest in history. The company halted withdrawals and pledged to cover customer losses from its own funds. Hackers, attributed to North Korea's "Trader Traitor" unit, moved over $6 billion from Binance wallets in approximately 20 minutes.
Binance identified "additional points of breach" beyond an initially suspected compromised engineer's laptop. While details remain scarce, the exchange is working with law enforcement and industry partners to freeze affected assets. Tether froze over $1.5 billion and Circle froze over $800 million in linked funds.
The hack follows Binance's 2023 guilty plea to anti-money-laundering violations and founder Changpeng Zhao's recent pardon by President Trump. Bitcoin's price dropped below $80,000 amid the news, though it remains above summer lows of $59,000. The incident raises questions about exchange security and regulatory oversight in the crypto sector.
Source: New York Times Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing