New York (AFP) – Cryptocurrency platform Binance said Thursday it had fallen victim to a major hack that hit around $6.3 billion in funds, with about half that amount frozen to prevent a massive theft.

The company – the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes – posted a series of sometimes contradictory messages on X, insisting that “user funds are completely safe” but also saying it would “cover all losses.”

The company said later on its X account for Latin America that “the total estimated impact is around $6.3 billion.”

“We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze the affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far,” it added.

That would be four times the amount impacted in what had been the biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind to date: $1.5 billion taken in February 2025 from the Bybit platform.

The Bybit heist was attributed at the time to a group of hackers affiliated with North Korea called TraderTraitor.

Blockchain investigation firm TRM Labs said Thursday it had “high confidence” that the Binance hack was also orchestrated by TraderTraitor, citing “robust on and off-chain intelligence.”

“Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists,” TRM said.

TraderTraitor is believed to be part of Lazarus Group – which gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview,” a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

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