This is the largest cryptocurrency heist in history: $6 billion stolen from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, on October 29. North Korea and its hacking teams, which have stolen billions of dollars in recent years, were named by the FBI as the culprits.
Also nicknamed the “Trador Traitor” or “treacherous traders” in French, these are an elite group of North Korean hackers who are also believed to be behind a later theft of about $1.5 billion in February 2025, stolen from Bybit.
These hackers would be linked to an organization named Lazarus, which comprises several subgroups with different methods and objectives, led by the General Bureau of Reconnaissance in Pyongyang, its main external intelligence agency. Banks, media, and even the website of the Supreme Court… Lazarus does not limit itself to cryptocurrency theft. More than 80% of attacks on South Korean institutions are attributed to the North according to the country’s intelligence services.
Andariel, another hacker group, would rather target defense and technology sectors, while Kimsuky would harvest information on security and diplomacy.
It is plausible, according to several experts, that artificial intelligence was used in the Binance theft. As AI develops, concerns grow about these attacks potentially becoming more sophisticated in the future.
Resumption of withdrawals
The leading cryptocurrency exchange platform also announced on Sunday, November 1, that withdrawals were gradually being resumed. “The first series of withdrawals (…) is now open on the bitcoin network,” the company said on its official X account.
Its administrators added that a phased restart had been adopted “prioritizing tokens based on user demand data from the past week, so that each network-asset pair could be restored cautiously once stability and security checks had been performed before re-opening access.”
The platform, which on Thursday suffered a massive hack estimated at $6.3 billion (€5.6 billion), had suspended customer withdrawals to stem the hemorrhage. It had also promised that users’ funds had been secured.
