(Credit - The New York Times)
North Korean Hackers Drain $6 Billion in Massive Binance Breach
North Korean hackers penetrated Binance at approximately 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, draining more than $6 billion in the largest cryptocurrency heist in history and forcing the exchange to halt deposits and withdrawals. Cryptocurrency analysts, corporate executives, and regulatory observers spanning from Abu Dhabi to New York scrambled to track the massive fund outflows as the digital deluge unfolded in real time.
Binance executives rushed to contain the breach by establishing an emergency war room on the internal messaging platform Wea, convening roughly 100 participants that included specialized cryptocurrency tracers and security personnel. The response rapidly transitioned to a mass conference call where employees communicated in a mixture of English and Chinese. Among the leaders on the call was co-CEO He Yi, who is seven months pregnant and managed operations through the night from her base in Abu Dhabi, taking a critical briefing at 3 a.m. local time.
As the security failure played out, founder Changpeng Zhao took to the social platform X to narrate the unfolding events to his 12.9 million followers. Zhao posted prayer hand emojis, interacted with the site’s owner, and insisted through crypto slang that customer deposits remained safe, while acknowledging publicly that the blow was painful but survivable. Binance management pledged that the company would cover all user losses resulting from the unauthorized outflows.
The crisis struck the exchange following a turbulent operational history. Binance previously pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money-laundering violations that allowed illicit actors to move funds, resulting in $4.3 billion in penalties paid to United States regulators. A presidential pardon granted to Zhao the following October paved the way for renewed expansion efforts before the security compromise struck the platform.
