North Korean hackers have pulled off what officials are calling the largest bank heist in human history, draining billions from cryptocurrency exchange Binance in mere minutes.
The attack struck Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, on Thursday evening, with the TraderTraitor group allegedly making off with $6.3 billion in digital coins, according to reports. The entire operation took roughly 20 minutes from start to finish.
The hackers gained access through an engineer’s laptop and deployed sophisticated algorithms to shuttle stolen cryptocurrency across international networks, making the funds nearly impossible to trace or recover. US officials have previously stated that cybercrime attacks fund approximately half of North Korea’s missile program.
Richard Teng, co-CEO of Binance, addressed the breach directly on Friday. “This was a complex attack,” he said. “Rest assured that we are working non-stop to resolve this, to make the users whole, and live up to your trust.”
He made an explicit promise to account holders about covering their losses. “I want to be clear, we are committed to covering all hacked losses through our company funds. Your assets are safe,” Teng continued. “We will do everything in our power to make sure that these bad actors are held accountable.”
Binance has managed to claw back some of the stolen funds. The exchange confirmed that $2.8 billion had been recovered, though approximately $3 billion is believed to be permanently lost.
The fallout rippled immediately through cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin fell 5.3 percent to $77,503.39, while Ethereum dropped six percent to $2,216.25. BNB tumbled 6.5 percent to $699.13, and Solana suffered the steepest decline among major assets, plunging 7.7 percent to $94.57.
Elon Musk drew sharp pushback from Binance leadership with his reaction on X. The Tesla and SpaceX founder responded to news of the hack with several laughing emojis on his platform.
Co-CEO Changpeng Zhao fired back directly at Musk over his tone. “Elon, have a lot of respect for you,” he wrote. “But bad time to troll. Please stop. Our SPCX shares (from our $500m investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion. Would appreciate if you show a little support. Thanks!”
Federal authorities have entered the investigation. Binance is now cooperating with the FBI as investigators work to establish the full scope of the breach. The bureau issued a statement confirming its involvement: “The FBI is aware of the incident and is engaged with relevant public and private partners to understand the scope of the activity, evaluate potential impacts, and coordinate appropriate investigative steps.”
The TraderTraitor collective has built a reputation for precisely this kind of operation, using speed and complexity to outpace traditional financial security measures. Their methods have made them a persistent threat in the digital asset space, with North Korean state backing suspected behind their activities.
The speed of the Binance attack underscores vulnerabilities that remain even at major institutional platforms. The hackers’ ability to compromise an individual engineer’s laptop and escalate to billion-dollar losses in under half an hour has intensified scrutiny of internal access controls across the industry.