North Korean hackers suspected in Binance breach as crypto losses reach $2.02 billion in 2025

TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence have linked the attack on Binance to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit, on the basis of blockchain data they rated as highly reliable. Chainalysis also points to North Korean hackers with high confidence, while crypto investigator ZachXBT says the group could be Lazarus Group.

1. Binance said the incident caused about $6.3 billion in damage. In the immediate aftermath, Bitcoin fell to $78,5 тыс. and Ethereum to $2,2 тыс., while forced liquidations reached $1.5 billion, with most of that coming from long positions.
2. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the episode looked like a hack. Binance said it tied the incident to the compromise of an engineer’s laptop.
3. The exchange said it froze about $3 billion in assets and promised to cover losses from its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU).
4. Lazarus has previously been linked to attacks on Kelp DAO, Drift and Upbit. Across 2025, groups linked to North Korea have stolen $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency.