What to Know About the Reported $6.3 Billion Binance Hack

Fortune reports that Binance, described as the world’s largest digital currency exchange, was hit by a major hack on Thursday. Binance said the estimated total impact sits at around $6.3 billion, while reports circulating on X had suggested a wider range from $2 billion to $8 billion. The article notes the situation remains fluid and that the final scope could take days to determine.

According to Fortune, Binance initially said a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop may have allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng later said the attack involved additional breach points and described it as complex. Fortune also reports that researchers said attackers appeared to hijack internal Binance wallets to move funds to external wallets they controlled.

Fortune says early reports indicated the hacker took $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, a similar amount in Tether, and slightly under $1 billion each in Ethereum and USDC, with other currencies likely involved. Tether and Circle announced they would freeze stablecoins tied to the hack. Fortune notes those efforts may be only partially successful, while later reports cited in the article suggested a loan maneuver on Aave amounted to around $60 million, leaving the bulk of stablecoins potentially recoverable.

No one has claimed responsibility, and Binance has not identified a specific culprit, Fortune reports. The article says security firms TRM and Chainalysis have both indicated North Korea is almost certainly behind the hack, while also stressing there is no definitive proof. The report frames the theory as plausible because of North Korea’s history of crypto hacking and the sophistication of the attack.

Fortune reports that major cryptocurrencies fell after news of the hack, but the drop was not dramatic. Bitcoin and Ethereum were down around 3% as of early Friday, though the move coincided with a broader financial market selloff. The article says CEOs of Coinbase, Tether, and other major crypto companies pledged support, and that Binance is reportedly working with the FBI and U.S. Secret Service to investigate.