‘Elite North Korean hackers’ blamed for $6.3bn Binance hack – business live

The crypto industry is reeling from a massive hack at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Digital assets worth more than $6.3bn (£4.7bn) have reportedly been taken from Binance by North Korean hackers, apparently after a laptop belonging to one of its engineers was hacked.

The company said its teams are “working around the clock” to resolve the issue.

“Rest assured that user funds are completely safe,” a Binance spokesperson said in a statement.

Binance said it had worked with partners to ⁠freeze the affected assets, with about $3bn ⁠located so far. It gave no update on ​the status of the remaining $3.3bn as Binance co-founder Yi He said the company would cover “all hacking losses”.

Richard Teng adds the Binance are ‘working closely’ with law enforcement.

He lists the actions which the digital exchange has taken since discovering the theft:

Temporarily suspended withdrawals while we complete a security revamp of the withdrawal service and its related addresses

Revoked the affected address authorizations

Engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds

Our team hasn’t stopped. We’re working closely with law enforcement to ensure the matter is handled appropriately - and I’ll share what I can, as soon as I can.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng adds that around half the assets stolen in the hack have been frozen:

He’s posted a list of points which customers ‘need to know’:

Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and company funds

Estimated total impact: ~$6.3B, with ~$3B frozen on-chain so far, in coordination with our blockchain partners

No evidence of any wallet private key leak

Deposits are unaffected and operating as normal

Richard Teng, the co-chief executive officer of Binance, has pledged that customers money is ‘safe’, despite the hack.

Posting on X a few minutes ago, Teng confirms that it appears the break-in came via an employee’s laptop – but insists it was a ‘more complex’ attack than simply clicking on a rogue link.

I want to speak to you directly about what happened.

Bottom line - your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss.

Our initial investigation suggests this security incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop. That gave an attacker access to a service container, where they submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer’s permissions, and this was not a single “one-click” action. It involved a more complex attack process. Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual.

So far, we have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak.

Teng adds that Binance will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and every fact is verified - and publish an updated Proof of Reserves once remediation is complete.

The hacker who swiped over $6bn of digital assets from Binance is in the process of switching stablecoins (which can be frozen) into etherium (which can’t), according to media company Decrypt.

Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle moved quickly to blacklist the suspected attacker’s addresses in order to freeze a portion of the funds and make them inaccessible.

As centralized issuers, they each have the ability to blacklist addresses so their tokens cannot move, and more than $2 billion of those two tokens have been frozen so far by different stablecoin providers. ETH has no issuer, so every dollar converted before a freeze lands is out of their reach.

Jim Reid, market strategist at Deutsche Bank, reports:

Crypto assets have come under pressure after Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, suspended deposits and withdrawals following a suspected hacking incident. Bitcoin is down -0.40% this morning, following a -3.03% slide yesterday.

TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm that tracks the industry, has declared that an elite North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor was responsible for the security breach at Binance.

TRM Labs have also calculated that the breach is “the largest crypto theft on record”.

In a report issued this morning, TRM Labs say:

On October 29, 2026, an attacker moved approximately $6.36bn out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes starting at 20:05 UTC. That makes this the largest crypto theft on record, about four times the $1.5bn Bybit hack of February 2025. Binance has confirmed a security incident and suspended withdrawals on several networks.

TRM attributes the attack to TraderTraitor, North Korea’s elite hacking unit, based on robust on and off-chain intelligence. We make this judgment with high confidence. TRM is tracking the funds and alerting partners through the Beacon Network.

News of Binance’s security breach sent bitcoin falling by more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368 – although it’s since recovered back to $78,335 (-0.6%).

US stocks linked to cryptocurrencies fell in afterhours trading.

Shares in crypto exchange Coinbase Global are down 4.8%, while Strategy, the US company which has been a massive buyer of bitcoin, fell 5.75%.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

Britain’s housing market is feeling an autumnal chill, as rising mortgage rates hits demand.

UK annual house price growth slowed to 0.5% in October, the slowest pace since January 2024, new data from Nationwide this morning shows. That’s down from 0.8% in the year to September.

On a monthly basis, the average price of a house was unchanged this month.

The jump in fixed-rate mortgages to almost 6%, on average, appears to have dampened buyers’ enthusiasm, pushing up the cost of repaying a mortgage.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, says:

“Market activity and house price growth have slowed in recent months, in part reflecting the uncertain economic backdrop. Geopolitical tensions remain high, with the conflict in the Middle East exerting upward pressure on energy prices, fanning inflation concerns.

“This in turn has led to mounting financial market expectations of Bank Rate increases, which have maintained upward pressure on the market interest rates which underpin mortgage pricing.

Forward-looking indicators suggest thee could be “further softness in the near term,” Gardner adds:

Surveyors report that new buyer enquiries remain weak. Moreover, consumer sentiment dipped noticeably in October, with households becoming less confident about the outlook for the general economy as well as their own financial situation in the year ahead.

7am GMT: Nationwide’s October House Price Index

9.30am GMT: UK GDP quarterly national accounts: April to June 2026

10am GMT: eurozone GDP report for Q3 2026