Binance announced it has recovered 90% of the $6.3bn in cryptocurrency assets stolen during a hack on Thursday, with the company pledging to cover the remaining 10% as it becomes available. The cryptocurrency exchange said it set aside over $6.34bn in corporate funds to absorb the financial impact entirely, ensuring users would not bear losses from the incident.
The FBI attributed the attack to North Korean state-backed hackers, specifically identifying the Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor, as the likely perpetrators. Intelligence analysts observed the stolen assets being converted into Ethereum and noted expectations that funds would undergo further conversion through decentralized finance platforms. North Korea has maintained a long-standing denial of involvement in such attacks. US President Donald Trump stated the country was still determining responsibility, though acknowledged the possibility of North Korean involvement.
Binance suspended withdrawals immediately following the breach but began restoring them across multiple networks in phases starting Sunday. The company’s investigation revealed that a compromised engineer’s laptop initially granted unauthorized access, though subsequent investigation uncovered additional points of breach. Company leadership indicated multiple individuals carried out the attack using sophisticated methods, including mechanisms designed to obscure their activity.
Law enforcement and intelligence partners worked to contain the damage, with authorities freezing approximately $3bn in stolen assets by Friday. The US Secret Service said it was conducting extensive recovery efforts alongside private sector partners. All holdings in major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether, plus seven other widely-traded digital assets, are covered under Binance’s compensation commitment.
The incident represents the largest cryptocurrency hack on record, surpassing a $1.5bn theft from the Bybit exchange in 2025, which was also attributed to North Korean actors by the FBI. Binance, which operates globally with hundreds of millions of estimated users worldwide, continues its investigation into the breach.
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