Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, says it has covered 90% of the $6.3bn in assets stolen in a hack on Thursday, and that the remaining 10% may take longer to source in the required amounts. The attack is believed to be the biggest theft in crypto history.
"Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users," the company said in a statement on Saturday. It has set aside more than $6.34bn of company funds to cover the losses, and says all holdings of bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether, along with seven other widely traded tokens, have been made whole. On Sunday it said withdrawals had been restored on several networks after being suspended following the hack.
The FBI said on Saturday that North Korea was responsible, naming the state-backed hacking unit known as TraderTraitor, or the Lazarus Group. It said the hackers were converting the stolen assets into Ethereum and were expected to move them again through decentralised finance and instant-swap services. US President Donald Trump, however, told reporters Washington was still unsure who was behind the attack, adding that if it was North Korea, "we'll talk to North Korea about it".
Binance's initial investigation pointed to a compromised engineer's laptop that allowed unauthorised withdrawals, but it later found "additional points of breach". Co-chief executive Richard Teng said more than one person carried out the hack, using sophisticated methods including a "self-destruct mechanism" to cover their tracks. The exchange says about $3bn of the stolen assets has been frozen with help from law enforcement and partners. The previous record was the $1.5bn theft from the Bybit exchange in 2025, which the FBI also blamed on North Korea.