Binance Pledges $6.34 Billion After Record Hack, as Bitcoin Drops 5%

3 articles · Updated · NBC News · Oct 30

More than $6 billion moved through wallets tied to the Binance breach, and the exchange said it has set aside $5 billion while seeking another $1.34 billion to reimburse affected users.
About $3 billion has been identified and frozen across several exchanges, but TRM Labs estimates $2.4 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum will never be recovered.
The heist unfolded in roughly 20 minutes starting around 4 p.m. ET Thursday; Binance first blamed a compromised laptop, then said its investigation found additional breach points.
Tether and Circle helped freeze implicated assets, while blockchain analysts said the attack showed traits seen in past operations linked to North Korean actors, though Binance said it has not identified the hackers.
Bitcoin fell more than 5% to about $77,000 and other affected tokens dropped as much as 9%, deepening a crypto slump already worsened by the failure of the U.S. Clarity Act.