Binance lost $6.3 billion in about 20 minutes. Your Hot Pocket takes longer than that. North Korea's TraderTraitor unit did the work, and the FBI confirmed it.
Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange. It sells "security" the way a casino sells "luck."
The exchange keeps a $1 billion emergency fund called SAFU. It was set up in 2018 and held entirely in Bitcoin. The heist was more than six times that size. Binance built a fire extinguisher and then got hit by a meteor.
The hackers hit ten blockchains. They compromised the hot wallet signing infrastructure, according to TRM Labs. Binance says no private key leaked. Comforting. Your money left through the front door, and nobody picked the lock.
The previous record was the $1.5 billion Bybit theft. Same crew. North Korea took the old record and quadrupled it. That is called career growth.
Binance says it will cover all losses. It froze roughly $3 billion with help from Tether and Circle. It has not said where the other $3.3 billion went. Presumably somewhere with excellent missile funding.
Now the explainers arrive. Keep your coins in a hardware wallet. Use two-factor authentication. Don't click strange links. This is advice for a burglary, delivered after the bank vault was carried out by helicopter.
Retail traders will read these tips and feel prepared. Some of you will buy a $79 USB stick and name it Fort Knox. You will lose it in a couch by December.
Your seed phrase is on a sticky note. Kim Jong Un's cyber unit is taking notes.
Photo by Art Rachen on Unsplash
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