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A U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm says a North Korean unit was likely behind the hack that impacted more than $6 billion US on Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance in a statement early Friday called it a “complex attack” and said it worked with blockchain partners to freeze roughly $3 billion US in affected assets. The company updated that figure to $5 billion US on Friday afternoon.
“Binance has begun recovering affected assets for users and continues to work with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace, freeze and recover additional funds,” the company told CBC News in a statement.
The cryptocurrency exchange said that deposits were unaffected, while withdrawals have been suspended and are expected to resume in the next day or two. It said it will cover all losses.
The company said on X Friday that an initial investigation suggested the incident may have involved a compromised laptop, but that a subsequent investigation uncovered additional “points of breach.”
Blockchain analysis firm TRM, in a post on its website Thursday, attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which it described as North Korea’s elite hacking unit. “We make this judgment with high confidence,” the firm said.
“An attacker moved approximately $6.36 billion US out of Binance wallets on 10 blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes,” TRM said.
That would make the hack the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, it said.
In February last year, another cryptocurrency exchange, Bybit, suffered a $1.5-billion hit when it was hacked. The FBI said North Korea and TraderTraitor were responsible for the hack.
“Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists, including the Bybit hack,” TRM said.
North Korean history of hacks
Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis also believed the Binance hack was “likely done by DPRK group TraderTraitor,” its co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin wrote on X. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
Asked about the potential ties to North Korea, a Binance spokesperson said only that the company is “working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of the criminals and bring them to justice.”
Experts say North Korea has turned to crypto-hacking and other illicit cyberactivities as a source of badly needed foreign currency to support its troubled economy and fund its nuclear program in the wake of tough UN sanctions and other difficulties.
A U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm says North Korean hackers were likely behind the theft of $6.3 billion US — nearly $9 billion Cdn — on…
Read More: Binance says $6.3B US hacked in what could be largest cryptocurrency theft
