Binance Loses $6.3 B in Largest Crypto Theft, Attributed to North‑Korea‑Backed Hackers

Binance confirmed that hackers stole roughly $6.3 billion from the exchange on Thursday, marking the biggest cryptocurrency theft on record. Investigators linked the breach to North‑Korea‑backed actors and identified multiple entry points beyond an engineer’s compromised laptop. The attackers exploited Ethereum’s EIP‑7702 delegation mechanism to gain control of a hot wallet and bypass normal approval controls, enabling a rapid drain of assets. Binance has set aside more than $6.34 billion—including $5 billion in the stolen tokens—to cover the loss, and is rebuilding its withdrawal system while conducting a company‑wide security review. The incident triggered a temporary freeze on new deposits and borrowing at the DeFi lender Aave, which later reopened its markets. Binance plans to resume withdrawals within 40 hours of the latest update and to publish a full proof‑of‑reserves report by Monday.