Binance’s Record Heist Rekindles a Fight Over Who Can Keep Crypto Safe
Binance’s Record Heist Rekindles a Fight Over Who Can Keep Crypto Safe
North Korean-linked hackers had already built a long record of financial cyberattacks before crypto became their most lucrative terrain. The actors suspected in the Binance theft, TraderTraitor, were also blamed for last year’s $1.5 billion ByBit raid; researchers say the group has turned theft, laundering and evidence destruction into a highly automated operation. “It had to have been done by a computer,” Chainalysis researcher Eric Jardine said of the speed and scale of the Binance attack.
On Thursday, that capability reportedly produced the largest cryptocurrency theft on record: $6.3 billion in client assets taken from Binance’s offshore platform. The exchange halted withdrawals and deposits, while blockchain partners froze at least $3 billion. Binance said the initial entry point included a compromised engineer’s laptop, alongside other breaches; co-CEO Richard Teng called it “a complex attack.”
The incident immediately reopened a basic argument over where crypto holders are safest. Tyler Moore, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Tulsa, warned that keeping substantial funds on an exchange is “extremely dangerous,” noting there are no FDIC-style protections when an exchange is hacked. CFTC Chair Michael Selig drew a regulatory line, saying offshore platforms lack the safeguards available in US financial markets.
Others took the opposite view. Blockaid chief executive Ido Ben-Natan said Binance’s pledge to cover losses meant users were unlikely to be left out of pocket, and argued exchanges must learn from the attack rather than abandon custody altogether.
By Friday, the heist had also become an online spat. Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao asked Elon Musk to stop mocking the exchange and “show a little support,” invoking Binance’s investment connected to Musk’s Twitter takeover. Musk’s account retweeted a response reading, “True 😂,” and another urging followers to “Believe them when they say it.” The exchange restored deposits, but the wider question—whether crypto’s security model can keep pace with its attackers—remains unresolved.
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