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NORTH KOREAN hackers are most likely behind the largest cryptocurrency theft in history, in which $6.3 billion was stolen from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Most of the money disappeared in just 20 minutes, and new findings by cyber security experts point to the TraderTraitor hacking group, linked to the North Korean regime, Reuters reported.
The American company TRM Labs states that it attributes the attack with a high degree of certainty to that group. The company Chainalysis came to a similar conclusion, while Elliptic discovered links to earlier thefts for which North Korean hackers are also suspected. Although US authorities and Binance have not yet officially confirmed the identity of the attackers, findings from multiple independent security firms point to the same North Korean hacker group. TraderTraitor has already been linked to some of the biggest crypto heists, including the attack on the Bybit exchange in 2025, in which around $1.5 billion was stolen.
A particularly important piece of evidence was found by the company Chainalysis. Its investigators determined that some of the money stolen from Binance began to be mixed with funds from an earlier attack on the Bitget exchange, which was also attributed to North Korean hackers.
The company Elliptic confirmed that part of the stolen funds ended up at an address that was already connected to that attack.
Experts point out similarities in the method of breakthrough. TraderTraitor is known for attacks on employees of crypto companies, use of malware and thorough preparation before withdrawing money.
THEY STOLE BILLIONS IN JUST 20 MINITES!
According to an analysis by TRM Labs, the attackers transferred approximately $6.36 billion from Binance's digital wallets to ten different blockchain networks. Most of the transactions were carried out in just 20 minutes on Thursday night.
Investigators determined that the preparations lasted at least 36 hours. Hackers first performed several small test transactions to check if their system works, and then launched the main attack.
The analysis shows that they managed to take control of the infrastructure that authorizes cryptocurrency transfers. This allowed them to issue orders that transferred money from Binance wallets to addresses under their control.
Binance initially reported that the attack likely began with the compromise of one of its engineers' laptops. Subsequent investigation, however, revealed additional points of breach.
"This was a complex attack and we are doing everything we can in cooperation with law enforcement to shed light on it," said Binance.
The company claims that so far there is no evidence of theft of private keys of digital wallets.
SOME OF THE MONEY MAY NEVER BE RETURNED
Binance and its partners were able to quickly freeze approximately three billion dollars in stolen assets, mostly in stable cryptocurrencies whose issuers can block transactions.
However, much of the remaining money is in bitcoin, ether, and other cryptocurrencies that cannot be simply frozen.
Elliptic estimates that about $3.3 billion remains outside the reach of such measures. That money can be stopped if it ends up at an exchange that cooperates with investigators, but there is no central authority that can directly block transactions.
Investigators warn that attackers are using thousands of automated transactions to disguise the movement of funds.
Chainalysis says it is encountering unprecedented patterns of concealment of cash flows, which could make it even more difficult to recover stolen assets.
I guess we will soon find out what really happened and who made the biggest robbery so far.
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