Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it is estimated to have suffered a loss of $6.3 billion (approx. 8.4 trillion won) due to a hacking incident.

Binance stated on the 29th (local time) that "initial findings suggest that an attacker accessed service containers through a compromised laptop of a DevOps engineer and submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions."

It added, "The estimated scale of damage is approximately $6.3 billion."

Binance noted that it has collaborated with blockchain industry partners to freeze the affected assets, and approximately $3 billion has been frozen on-chain so far.

It further stated, "All losses will be covered by the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAUF) and corporate funds, and user funds are safe."

Binance explained that it suspended deposits and withdrawals while conducting security checks and revoked permissions for the affected addresses.

Bloomberg reported that blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs stated North Korea is behind the theft, making it the largest cryptocurrency heist in history.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posted on X that "over $1.5 billion in Tether has been frozen," while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated, "In response to reports that Binance's vulnerabilities were exploited, we have frozen $800 million worth of coins."

Earlier, Investing.com reported that cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode stated approximately $5.3 billion (approx. 7.1 trillion won) in assets were withdrawn due to this hack.

By asset, Glassnode explained that this included $1.66 billion worth of Tether (USDT), 17,985 Bitcoins (worth approx. $1.45 billion), and $763 million worth of USD Coin (USDC).

Bitcoin plummeted by around 4% on this day, dropping to $78,516 per coin, its lowest level in a month.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jensen Sipeyt noted that "while hot wallet drains are not new in the crypto market, the scale of this incident occurring at the world's largest exchange is extremely serious," expressing concern over a series of recent security breaches.

In particular, this crisis has further heightened market volatility as it occurred just ahead of the $11 billion options expiry on the 30th, amid growing speculation that the Democratic Party's victory in the US midterm elections could lead to stricter regulations on the cryptocurrency industry.

Tian Zeng, CEO of crypto hedge fund Third Eye, warned Bloomberg that "the endless string of hacks is a fatal blow to the crypto industry," adding that "exposing such vulnerabilities at a time when new artificial intelligence (AI) models come out every two weeks is extremely dangerous."

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