Binance Hack of $6.4B Linked to North Korean Hacker Group TraderTraitor

1. 10:12
   BBC WorldSelected

   North Korean Lazarus Group Linked to $6.3 bn Binance Hack

   Two blockchain analytics firms, TRM Labs and Chainalysis, have identified the North Korean state‑backed Lazarus Group (also known as TraderTraitor) as the likely perpetrators of the $6.3 bn (£4.7 bn) theft from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The group reportedly gained access to Binance’s hot‑wallet signing system, enabling automated transfers of funds. Binance’s co‑CEO Richard Teng said the breach was broader than an engineer’s laptop compromise and that about 80 % of the stolen assets have been recovered, with the remainder still missing. The incident follows a series of high‑profile cyber‑attacks attributed to North Korea, including the 2014 Sony Pictures hack and the 2022 theft of $620 m in crypto from Bybit, and underscores the country’s use of cybercrime to finance its regime.

2. 01:41
   BBC Business

   Binance's $6.3bn crypto hack biggest in history
3. 00:25
   Decrypt

   Binance Confirms $6.4 B Hack, CZ Urges Elon Musk to Stop Mocking After SpaceX Shares Mentioned

   Binance announced on October 30 2026 that it had suffered a $6.4 billion hack, the largest in history, and that the incident was attributed by TRM Labs and Chainalysis to the North Korea‑linked hacking group TraderTraitor. In response to Elon Musk’s public mockery of the exchange, Binance co‑founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) posted on X that Binance holds more than $1 billion in SpaceX shares from a $500 million investment in Musk’s Twitter takeover, and urged Musk to stop trolling. Binance’s co‑CEO Yi He clarified that the company’s annual revenue is sufficient to cover the losses and that it does not need to sell its SpaceX holdings. CZ later clarified that he had never suggested selling the shares, merely showing Musk the funds available to reassure him about Binance’s financial position.

1. 22:13
   Bitcoin MagazineSelected

   Chainalysis and TRM Labs Link $6.3 B Binance Hack to North Korean Unit TraderTraitor

   Blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs have traced the $6.3 billion theft from Binance’s hot wallets to TraderTraitor, a unit tied to North Korea. The theft began on Oct. 29 when an attacker used a Tornado Cash‑funded operational wallet to sign authorizations that allowed code deployed on a Binance hot wallet to move funds. Over roughly 20 minutes the attacker swapped $325 million in stablecoins for $285 million in ETH, then transferred the remaining $175 million to stop‑over addresses. Binance’s investigation points to a compromised engineer’s laptop that granted access to a service container, with no evidence of a private‑key leak. Binance says it has frozen about $3 billion on‑chain and holds a reserve of more than $6.34 billion, roughly $5 billion of which is in the affected token assets. The hack triggered a market sell‑off: Bitcoin fell to around $76,000, total market liquidations hit $1.5 billion (Bitcoin $468 million, Ether $358 million), and stablecoin issuers Tether, Circle, and First Digital froze more than $1.567 billion, $800 million, and the FDUSD stolen, respectively. The incident is the largest crypto hack on record if the figures hold.

2. 20:22
   DecryptSelected

   TRM and Chainalysis Tie $6.4B Binance Hack to North Korea's TraderTraitor

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