DUBAI (The Thursday Times) — Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said a security breach had caused an estimated $6.3 billion impact, in what analysts said could be the biggest crypto heist in history, and suspended all deposits and withdrawals while it traced the stolen funds.
The exchange said it had worked with partners to freeze affected assets, with about $3 billion located so far. Co-founder Yi He said Binance would cover “all hacking losses”, and the company said user funds remained safe. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze about $1.57 billion and more than $800 million respectively linked to the incident, according to reports.
An initial investigation suggested the breach began with a hacked laptop belonging to one of Binance’s engineers, which let an attacker gain access to one of its systems and make unauthorised withdrawals. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM said it believed with “high confidence” that North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking unit was responsible, AFP reported. Binance said it was working with law enforcement.
Markets slide
Bitcoin fell more than 3 per cent in early Asian trading on Friday to a six-week low of $76,368, and ether dropped more than 3 per cent to $2,178. BNB, the token originally launched as Binance Coin, was down 5 per cent over 24 hours, while shares in Coinbase and bitcoin buyer Strategy fell in extended US trading. Coinbase and Binance.US said they were not affected.
“It’s the biggest hack in history,” said Aravind Srinivasan of crypto market maker GSR. Analysts said the breach could prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralised exchanges. Binance has 335 million registered users and held about $162.8 billion in assets under custody, according to its 2025 annual report.
