North Korean hackers steal $6.3 billion from Binance

Approximately $6.3 billion left Binance in about twenty minutes, constituting the largest known cryptocurrency heist, which the FBI attributes to North Korean hackers. The key factor: the platform signed each withdrawal with its own private keys.

On October 29, 2026, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency platform, began processing payments. Each withdrawal carried a valid signature. Within roughly twenty minutes, according to **TRM Labs**, most of the approximately **$6.3 billion** was gone. It is almost certainly, according to **Elliptic**, the largest theft of any kind on record. The **FBI** attributes the attack to hackers from **North Korea**.

## Twelve years of attacks attributed to the regime

Lazarus and TraderTraitor are names that recur across twelve years of attacks attributed to North Korea. The history includes everything from the assault on **Sony Pictures**, marked by a red skeleton signature, to a printer malfunction at the central bank of **Bangladesh**. Job offers in PDFs and fake employees infiltrating real companies complete their method.

## A CEO signing off on his own theft

The overarching question is how the world's largest platform was made to sign its own theft. The answer lies in six months of face-to-face meetings and an executive who authorized transactions believing them to be legitimate. By the time it was visible, it could not be stopped.

## What is known and unknown about Binance

Regarding Binance, there are confirmed facts and gray areas. What is truly known, and what remains unclear, matters as much as the figure itself. A country with almost no internet access has learned to steal this way through patience and social engineering.

The figures provided are provisional and may change as the investigation continues.