The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, suffered damages exceeding 8 trillion won from a hacking incident and has fully suspended asset withdrawals. The company stated that it would compensate for the losses, indicating that operations would resume around 2 p.m. (Korean time) on the 1st of next month.
On the 30th, Binance posted on X (formerly Twitter), stating, "The estimated total damage is approximately $6.3 billion (8.4 trillion won)," and added, "We have frozen the affected assets in collaboration with blockchain partners, and approximately $3 billion (4 trillion won) has been frozen on-chain to date."
It further stated, "We will compensate for all losses through the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds. User funds are safe," and added, "We plan to publish an updated proof of reserves as soon as recovery is complete."
Binance established SAFU in July 2018. The fund size disclosed on the 13th was approximately $1 billion (1.3 trillion won).
Binance announced that it had suspended cryptocurrency withdrawals earlier that day to conduct a security check. As of 7 p.m., asset deposits and trading remain operational.
In a post at 1:36 p.m., the company stated it would resume asset withdrawals "within 48 hours," while a post at 5:47 p.m. indicated resumption "within 45 hours." These correspond to 1:36 p.m. and 2:47 p.m., respectively, on the 1st of next month.
Regarding the circumstances of the incident, Binance stated, "There is a possibility that it is related to a DevOps (Development and Operations) engineer's laptop being hacked, allowing an attacker to access service containers and place unauthorized withdrawal orders," and added, "No evidence of leaked wallet private keys has been found."
In a subsequent post, the company stated, "Additional intrusion paths were discovered during the follow-up investigation," and added, "This attack exhibits complex characteristics, and we are working to identify the issue in cooperation with law enforcement agencies."
Risk-averse sentiment triggered by the incident sparked mass selling, causing a sudden plunge in the cryptocurrency market. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin prices, which had fluctuated between $79,000 and $81,000 during the week, widened their decline starting at 1 a.m. that day, dropping to the $76,000 range by 11 a.m. The trading price was $77,567 as of 7 p.m., showing a slight rebound.
Blockchain analysis firms pointed to North Korea as the mastermind behind the attack. TRM Labs assessed that it is highly likely that the North Korean hacker group "TraderTraitor" led the attack.
ZachXBT identified the North Korean group "Lazarus" as the culprit. Blockaid also analyzed that the attack methods and sophistication were similar to past activities by North Korean hackers.
North Korean hackers stole approximately $1.5 billion (2 trillion won) from the overseas cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in February of last year. According to estimates by Chainalysis, the scale of cryptocurrency theft by North Korea last year was $2 billion (2.6 trillion won), a 50% increase compared to the previous year.
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