Binance Covers 90% of $6.3bn Hack, FBI Blames North Korea
Binance says it has replaced 90% of the $6.3bn (£4.7bn) in assets stolen in a hack on Thursday. The FBI has now said North Korea was responsible.
What Binance says it has done
Binance is described by the BBC as the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. It says the remaining 10% may take longer to source in the required amounts.
The company has pledged to cover 100% of the losses from what is suspected to be crypto's biggest hack on record. It says it has set aside more than $6.34bn in company funds to do so.
"Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users," it said in a statement on Saturday.
Binance says it replenished the assets from various funds and its own corporate treasury. All holdings of bitcoin, ethereum and Tether are covered, along with seven other widely-traded crypto assets.
Withdrawals next
The company's next goal is to resume withdrawals for users. It says it remains on track to reopen them on Sunday 1 November and will give an update once details are confirmed.
Who is blamed
The FBI said on Saturday that North Korea was behind the hack. It named the Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor, a state-backed hacking unit. Two analytics firms had earlier told the BBC they had robust intelligence pointing to the group.
North Korea has always denied involvement in such attacks. The FBI also blamed North Korea for the $1.5bn theft from the Bybit exchange in 2025. This new hack is believed to be the largest in history.
How the breach happened
Binance's first look at the incident suggested an engineer's laptop was compromised, which allowed unauthorised withdrawals. A later update said investigators had found additional points of breach.
Richard Teng, co-chief executive, said more than one person carried out the hack. He said the hackers used sophisticated methods to hide their tracks, such as a "self-destruct mechanism".
On Friday the company said it had frozen around $3bn of stolen assets, working with law enforcement, intelligence firms and partners. The US Secret Service said it was working around the clock with private sector partners to identify, freeze, trace and recover the funds. The investigation is ongoing.
Our view
The next test may be whether withdrawals reopen on schedule. It is also unclear how long the last 10% will take to replace, and how much of the frozen money can be recovered.
Source: BBC News