How did the biggest crypto heist in history just happen? — SkimNews
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- Binance was hit by a coordinated attack that shifted $6.36 billion in cryptocurrency reserves from wallets starting at 8:05 p.m. on 29 October; the largest-ever cryptocurrency heist took roughly 20 minutes.
- TraderTraitor was believed to have launched the Binance attack; the North Korea-linked hacking unit was also behind the $1.5 billion Bybit exchange hack in February 2025.
- US Treasury previously said that funds stolen in such attacks are used to finance North Korea’s nuclear missile programme.
- Binance reported no evidence that private cryptographic keys were stolen, instead suspecting that a compromised engineer’s laptop gave attackers access to withdrawal-request software; the exchange said there may have been additional points of breach.
- TRM Labs suggested that preparations for the attack may have begun several days before the 29 October theft.
- Tether, alongside Circle, froze billions of dollars in stolen coins, stymying the hackers’ attempts to transfer about half of the $6.36 billion any further.
- Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey said a single developer PC should not have been able to compromise the entire exchange and that bank-style two-man approval rules did not appear to be in place.
Why it matters: At Binance, the $6.36 billion drained over roughly 20 minutes exposes a material control failure: investigators suspect a compromised developer PC gave attackers access to withdrawal-authorisation software, making stolen cryptographic keys unnecessary. The apparent absence of two-man rules shows how a system promoted as decentralised can still depend on concentrated human and technical controls.
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