North Korea may have orchestrated the historic $6.3 billion crypto heist from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported.
According to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, the attackers transferred most of the stolen funds within about 20 minutes, similar to previous operations attributed to North Korean hackers.
Meanwhile, Binance has already identified half of the stolen money and, in conjunction with partners, effectively frozen the rest. Moreover, Yi He, the exchange’s co-founder, said Binance would cover all losses, so no users would risk their money.
However, the incident revived old fears about the risks of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and triggered a sell-off in cryptocurrency markets. For instance, Bitcoin fell more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368, while Ether fell by a similar percentage to $2,178.
Investigators believe a compromised laptop belonging to a Binance engineer was the entry point, allowing the attackers to access internal systems and initiate unauthorized withdrawals.
