Amid estimates that the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, suffered a hacking loss of approximately USD 6.3 billion (approx. KRW 8.4 trillion), analysis has emerged pointing to North Korean hacking organizations as the culprits.

While Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals and announced it would cover all losses, shockwaves are spreading through the market, including a sharp drop in Bitcoin prices.

Binance announced on the 29th, local time, that it is estimated to have suffered USD 6.3 billion in damages from the hacking.

Binance stated, "Initial investigation results suggest that an attacker accessed a service container through a compromised laptop of a DevOps engineer and submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions, with the estimated scale of damage at approximately USD 6.3 billion."

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

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

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

Bloomberg reported that blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs stated North Korea was behind this theft incident, calling it the largest cryptocurrency theft in history.

TRM Labs pointed to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor as being behind the attack.

TraderTraitor is the name used by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to refer to North Korea's hacking activities that stole approximately USD 1.5 billion in virtual assets from Bybit last year.

TRM Labs suggested the possibility that the transaction signing system of hot wallets—internet-connected wallets that handle customer withdrawals and other tasks—was compromised.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated via X, "We have frozen over USD 1.5 billion in Tether," and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire also said, "We have frozen USD 800 million worth of coins following reports that Binance's vulnerabilities were exploited."

Investing.com previously reported that cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode stated approximately USD 5.3 billion (approx. KRW 7.1 trillion) worth of assets were withdrawn due to this hacking.

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

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

Jensen Sipeyt of Bloomberg Intelligence expressed concern over the recent series of security incidents, stating, "While the hacking of hot wallets, which are online wallets, is not new in the cryptocurrency market, the scale of it occurring at the world's largest exchange is very serious."

In particular, this situation is further amplifying market volatility as it occurred ahead of the USD 11 billion options expiration on the 30th, and at a time when the Democratic Party's victory in the U.S. midterm elections raises the possibility of stronger regulations on the cryptocurrency industry.

Tian Zheng, CEO of cryptocurrency hedge fund Third Eye, warned Bloomberg, "Constant hacking is a fatal blow to the cryptocurrency industry," adding, "It is very dangerous for these vulnerabilities to be exposed repeatedly at a time when new artificial intelligence (AI) models come out every two weeks."

Bobby Li, founder of virtual asset hardware wallet company Ballet Crypto, pointed out, "Due to the characteristics of the Bitcoin network, which has no centralized issuer, it is impossible to forcibly freeze or recover stolen Bitcoin," and added, "Although Binance succeeded in freezing assets worth USD 2.7 billion to USD 3.0 billion, being frozen does not mean they are immediately returned to the exchange."

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