Binance suffers $6.3 billion hacker attack, the largest ever recorded in the cryptocurrency sector

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency broker, suffered what Bloomberg Television describes as the largest hacker attack ever recorded in the digital assets industry. The company said $6.3 billion in funds were affected, of which $3 billion was frozen.

The market reacted. According to the broadcaster, bitcoin fell by more than 3% after the news and, at the time of the report, fell 1.2%, to around US$77,800, having recovered part of the losses. The presenter classified the episode as a "black swan" event during the night.

What is known about the attack

According to Emily Nicolle, digital finance reporter at Bloomberg, Binance reported an attack targeting an employee's laptop, which allowed the attacker to access parts of the exchange's internal architecture and divert a large volume of resources. The confirmed value is around US$6 billion in crypto assets.

Of this total, around US$3 billion has already been frozen by the issuers of the respective cryptocurrencies, which prevents attackers from using them for now. The rest remains in the hands of criminals. Binance claims to have contacted authorities and is working with as many teams and companies as it can to try to recover the funds.

According to the most recent headline mentioned in the broadcast, Binance says that the schedule for resuming withdrawals is on track and that it will recover all losses with the SAFU fund and with the company's own resources.

Ability to absorb the blow

Nicolle noted that there is no updated number for the size of the SAFU fund, which a few years ago was estimated at about $1 billion. The remainder of the coverage would come from the company's cash flow. As Binance is a private and secretive company, there is no accurate picture of its finances, but it is generally considered very well capitalized, according to the reporter.

The main concern of investors, in Nicolle's opinion, is the suspension of withdrawals. She recalled the collapse of FTX two years ago, when withdrawals were also stopped. Even if the company has the money, he said, the impact depends on how quickly customers rush to withdraw their funds and the liquidity available behind the scenes. Only the reopening of withdrawals will show the real effect.

Suspicion falls on North Korea

The presenter raised the possible geopolitical component: if the attack is of North Korean origin, the resources would be a clear source of financing for the country and its military sector. According to Nicolle, several analysis companies point to North Korea as the origin, based on money laundering patterns and tactics that tend to leave traces. The largest hacker group linked to the country is Lazarus, and the approach would be typical of it.

The reporter considered that the process of marking assets stolen by North Korea on the blockchain is consolidated, which makes it increasingly difficult to reprocess and launder these resources. Still, this is a sanctioned state-sponsored hacking operation that will try to use every tactic available to get money into its operations.

Automatically translated from Portuguese.