Hackers hit Binance for about $6.3 billion in the biggest crypto theft on record, and analysts blame North Korea

Hackers made off with about $6.3 billion from Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, in what is now the largest crypto theft on record, and two U.S. blockchain analysis firms say North Korea was most likely behind it.

Binance said late Thursday that it was looking into a possible security problem, and its founder said the incident "does look like a hack," The Associated Press reported. The company later put the total impact at about $6.3 billion. Most of the theft played out over roughly 20 minutes starting late Thursday, Reuters reported. That is about four times the $1.5 billion taken from the exchange Bybit in February 2025, which had been the biggest such attack.

"This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it," Binance said in a post on X. The exchange said an early investigation pointed to a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers, which gave an attacker access to one of its systems, but it later said it had found additional points of breach, according to Reuters.

Binance said customer funds are safe and that it will cover the losses. It paused withdrawals and said it expects to restart them within about 45 hours, Reuters reported, while deposits were not affected, according to the AP. The company told users it has already set aside more than $6.3 billion to cover the incident, the BBC reported.

About $3 billion of the affected assets had been frozen with help from partners as of Friday. Stablecoin issuer Tether said it froze nearly $1.57 billion linked to the attack and Circle froze more than $800 million, Reuters reported.

TRM Labs and Chainalysis, both U.S.-based blockchain analysis firms, said they were highly confident a North Korean hacking unit was responsible. TRM said the attackers were able to make Binance's own wallets send funds to wallets the hackers controlled, a method that mirrors the Bybit theft the FBI blamed on North Korea, Reuters reported. Cryptocurrency prices fell on the news.