Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said Thursday that $6.3 billion in digital assets had been stolen in a security breach believed to be the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.
The company suspended deposits and withdrawals, froze approximately $3 billion in affected assets and pledged to cover all losses while investigating the incident.
Binance said preliminary findings indicated that attackers compromised an engineer's laptop, gaining access to a service container used to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.
Co-chief executive Richard Teng said the intrusion involved a complex process rather than a single employee's permissions, with no evidence so far of leaked wallet private keys.
Blockchain intelligence firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis expressed high confidence that North Korea-linked hackers were responsible.
TRM identified TraderTraitor, a hacking unit associated with the Lazarus Group, while cybersecurity company Check Point also linked the attack to the group.
The suspected involvement follows the $1.5 billion theft from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in 2025, previously attributed to North Korean hackers.
Western security agencies have accused Pyongyang of using stolen cryptocurrency to finance weapons programs, allegations North Korea has previously denied.
Binance said approximately half the affected assets had been frozen, although substantial funds remained under attackers' control.
Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle reported freezing approximately $2.4 billion, while World Liberty Financial said it had assisted recovery efforts.
The incident affected Binance.com, while Binance.US said its separate platform remained unaffected.
Coinbase also reported no impact.
Bitcoin fell approximately 5 percent following the breach, dropping below $77,000, while Ethereum and Solana also experienced sharp declines.
The attack has intensified concerns about security vulnerabilities at centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, where substantial asset holdings present attractive targets.
According to TRM's 2026 Crypto Crime Report, hackers stole $2.87 billion across nearly 150 incidents during 2025, less than half the amount reported in the Binance breach alone.
Binance said withdrawals would remain suspended until its systems were confirmed secure.
The exchange is cooperating with law enforcement and plans to publish a detailed technical report after completing its investigation.