Follow-Up: FBI and US Secret Service Join Binance Hack Probe as Signing System Breach Emerges and $2.4 Billion Is Feared Beyond Reach
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is working with law enforcement agencies around the world, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Secret Service (USSS), after hackers stole a record $6.3 billion from the platform, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday, October 30. The US embassy in London said it had no comment, and the USSS did not respond to a request for comment sent outside US hours.
New details of the breach have emerged. US blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs said the attackers compromised Binance's "signing infrastructure," the system that authorizes transactions, allowing them to issue instructions that emptied the affected wallets. Binance said in a statement on X that it initially thought the attack involved a compromised laptop, but that its subsequent investigation had uncovered additional points of breach, without elaborating.
Blockchain records show the bulk of the heist unfolded in about 20 minutes, beginning shortly after 2000 GMT on Thursday. Once the funds were moved, the attackers raced to shift them beyond the reach of Binance counterparties and stablecoin issuers.
About half the stolen assets were stablecoins that have since been frozen by issuers including Tether, Circle, Ripple and World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto venture. Freezing limits the attackers' ability to convert the assets into cash, but does not mean the coins will be returned to Binance. TRM estimated that about $2.4 billion worth of bitcoin and ether is beyond reach, because no company issues bitcoin or ether and no company can freeze either one.
Chainalysis said funds stolen in an attack last month on the exchange Bitget were being mixed with proceeds from the Binance breach.
On attribution, TRM said the breach shared characteristics with last year's attack on crypto exchange Bybit, which the FBI attributed to North Korean hackers, and that it was highly confident the same group, North Korea's elite TraderTraitor unit, was behind the Binance theft. Co-CEO Richard Teng said Binance's own investigation had not yet identified the attackers and that losses would be covered by the exchange's secure asset fund and company resources. North Korea routinely denies involvement in cyberattacks and cryptocurrency thefts, and its mission in Geneva and embassy in China did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Markets remained under pressure: cryptocurrencies fell on Friday and the total market value of stablecoins declined, suggesting investors were pulling money from digital assets, Reuters reported. GSM reported the initial story on Thursday: Binance estimated the impact at about $6.3 billion, said about $3 billion had been frozen, and pledged to cover all losses. The full Reuters report is available at Reuters: FBI and US Secret Service working with Binance after $6.3 billion hack.
Related: The Night $6.3 Billion Was Stolen: Understanding Cryptocurrency and Binance
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国联邦调查局（FBI）总部胡佛大楼（资料图）。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，GSM 联邦素材包固定图。 / The J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI headquarters in Washington (file photo). Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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