North Korean Hackers Drained $6.3 Billion From Binance in 20 Minutes
The $6.3B Binance Hack Was Pulled Off in Just 20 Minutes
Crypto-tracing firms say the notorious TraderTraitor group, linked to North Korea, may be responsible for the largest digital heist in history. The Binance breach unfolded in roughly 20 minutes, and billions in cryptocurrency are likely gone for good. Investigators are piecing together how the attack moved so fast and whether any of the funds can still be recovered.
Multiple crypto-tracing firms say notorious North Korean hackers TraderTraitor may be behind the largest digital heist in history—with billions of crypto likely gone for good.
- lordnacho
The heist itself only took 20 minutes, but the preparation is a business that has gone on for years. Much like a heist movie, the exciting bit is just the conclusion after a long build-up where Danny gets the gang together, plans it, and executes it.
- jakaroo
The short duration of this crypto hack isn't particularly noteworthy. Of course it takes time to find or design the exploit, but execution is typically very quick for such events
- gurkwart
Something tells me that the timing of the Claude Code supply chain attack is not a coincidence ...
- pixl97
When seconds matter we'll patch our systems in days to weeks.
- dgrin91
I wonder what the actual attack vectors here were. Was there actually a hack into binance systems, or was it just some insider or credential leak?
- efields
I'd watch all 20 minutes of that screen share.
- hn_submit
I'm stunned that they had that much cryptocoin online to be stolen. Why didn't they put it in "cold storage" and only some information in the database which says how much each customer had?
OTOH I heard that the culprits didn't steal the private keys of the affected customers. If this is true the stolen cryptocoins are worthless.
- hattmall
Binance having an extra $6B to cover this is wild to me.