Risks of cryptocurrencies: Billion dollar hacker attack on crypto exchange Binance

dpa | The largest digital currency exchange Binance has become the target of a hacker attack with consequences worth billions. According to Binance, a total of an estimated $6.3 billion (approx. €5.63 billion) is affected. All deposits and withdrawals have been temporarily suspended.

At the same time, the cryptocurrency exchange on the online platform X assured that users' holdings were "safe" and that all losses would be compensated. With partners, affected units of digital currencies worth around three billion dollars have so far been frozen, it said.

The analysis firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to North Korean hackers from the TraderTraitor group. According to TRM's findings, the attackers moved a large portion of the $6.36 billion within 20 minutes. It was the largest-scale attack on a digital currency exchange. In the most serious attack to date, around $1.5 billion in digital currencies were stolen on the Bybit exchange at the beginning of 2025. This attack was also attributed to the North Korean hacker group.

According to TRM, the attackers attempted to forestall the freezing of stolen digital currency units by transacting with the crypto units. They currently hold cryptocurrencies worth around $2.4 billion, which their issuers cannot access.