Binance says hackers stole about $6.3 billion in crypto in a record Binance hack on October 29, an attack that blockchain firms attribute to North Korea. The exchange has said it will bear the financial cost.
According to Premium Times, Binance attributes a $6.34 billion cyberattack to North Korea. That figure comes from the headline of the report, and the full statement and its evidence were not available for review.
The Straits Times reported that the attack began just after 4pm New York time on October 29. Hackers drained more than US$6 billion from wallets across at least four blockchains. Estimates of the amount stolen later rose to US$6.3 billion.
The Straits Times also reported that TRM Labs, Chainalysis and Elliptic have all said North Korea is behind the heist. Circle said it froze more than US$800 million, and Tether said it froze more than US$1.5 billion, both linked to the potential Binance exploit, according to the same report.
Japan Times reported, based on its headline only, that hackers used fake job interviews in the heist. The report’s full text was not seen, so no details on how that method worked are available. According to Japan Times, Binance said it will bear the financial cost and paused withdrawals for almost two days after the incident.
Binance also said its security team detected and prevented 57 suspected North Korea-linked cyber threat cases throughout 2026, according to Premium Times. That claim is also drawn from the outlet’s headline and short excerpt.
The heist follows other large attacks on crypto platforms. Bitget suffered a cyber-attack that drained US$388 million about a month before this heist, and researchers attributed that hack to North Korea, according to reports that did not name a source outlet. The Straits Times reported that hackers stole nearly US$1.5 billion from Bybit in February 2025. Separately, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule in September allowing public company stocks to trade on blockchains. Experts fear the Binance hack could undermine those efforts.
Binance said it will keep working with law enforcement to find the attackers. Further attribution details and reimbursement steps were not reported in the sources. No response from North Korea or its government appears in the available reporting.
The key facts rely heavily on a small number of sources. The Binance attribution and the fake job interview claim come only from headlines and short excerpts from Premium Times and Japan Times, and the Straits Times article is cut off before its end. No independent confirmation of the final loss figure beyond the Straits Times estimate is available.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.