In a significant breach, Binance has reported the theft of 18,270 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $1.4 billion, based on an average price of $78,500 per Bitcoin. This heist not only eclipses Tesla’s disclosed holdings of 11,509 BTC but also more than doubles El Salvador’s national Bitcoin reserves of about 7,820 BTC.
Magnitude of the Heist and Initial Findings
The stolen amount nearly matches SpaceX’s publicly known holdings of 18,712 BTC, with just a 442 BTC difference. In terms of national holdings, the cybercriminals moved roughly 2.3 times more Bitcoin than El Salvador accumulated since it began purchasing the cryptocurrency in September 2021. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs suggests with high confidence that the North Korea-linked group TraderTraitor is behind the attack.
TRM Labs has linked TraderTraitor, a well-known cybercrime outfit targeting crypto firms, to this incident. These groups typically infiltrate company systems through social engineering and malware strategies.
TRM Labs, with high confidence, suggests that the attack was carried out by North Korea-linked TraderTraitor.
Binance refrained from directly naming the perpetrator. Preliminary investigations revealed the breach centered around a compromised engineer’s laptop, though additional infiltration points have since been identified. Importantly, the exchange found no evidence indicating a leak of wallet private keys.
Movement of Funds and Froze Assets
The digital currency exit took place at around 16:20 Eastern Time on Thursday, with 11 transactions transferring Bitcoin from a hot wallet to a new address. This sum was subsequently divided into 19 different addresses. Seventeen of these addresses held exactly 1,000 BTC each, while the remaining two held approximately 833 BTC and 438 BTC respectively.
During Saturday’s Asian trading session, Binance reported freezing approximately $3 billion of the stolen $6.3 billion in crypto assets on the blockchain. They noted the aid of stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle, highlighting the ability to block transactions from suspicious addresses.
Binance stated that about $3 billion of the $6.3 billion loss has been frozen, dedicating over $6.34 billion in resources to cover the loss.
Binance’s Response Plan and Transaction Measures
To mitigate the impact, Binance announced allocating over $6.34 billion in corporate funds, including $5 billion already represented by affected crypto assets within the company. For the remaining deficit, Binance is acquiring assets through market purchases and private deals.
Withdrawal activities have been temporarily halted due to intensified security checks. Binance aims to publish an updated proof of reserves, demonstrating sufficient coverage for customer balances and proprietary assets, on Monday, November 2.
