8 Trillion Won Drained from World's Largest Crypto Exchange in Just 20 Minutes

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked. Roughly 8.4 trillion won worth of cryptocurrency vanished in a mere 20 minutes — the largest loss in crypto history. At 5:05 a.m. Korean time today, cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum began moving to hackers' digital wallets. Ten blockchain networks were breached simultaneously.

A U.S. blockchain tracing firm believes the attack was carried out by the North Korean hacking group 'TraderTraitor' — the same organization the FBI identified as behind last year's theft of 2 trillion won from crypto exchange Bybit. Binance is investigating the possibility that an employee's laptop was compromised.

Hwang Suk-jin, a professor at Dongguk University's Graduate School of International Information Security, said North Korea's hacking capabilities rank among the world's top one or two, and warned that combining AI with professional hacking groups would enable even more sophisticated attacks.

Binance has promised to fully compensate customers for their losses, but frozen funds stand at 4 trillion won — half the amount stolen. Immediately after the hack was announced, Bitcoin's price briefly plunged more than 4%, hitting a six-week low.