World’s largest crypto exchange allows withdrawals after ₹60,000 cr theft:US FBI suspects North Korea behind world’s biggest crypto scam

World’s largest crypto exchange Binance has again allowed investors to withdraw cryptos from their wallets after a nearly ₹60,000 cr crypto theft was made, reported Reuters. North Korea behind over $6 billion Binance crypto theft, says FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance to North Korea, warning that the stolen funds are being converted into Ethereum and could be moved through decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms and instant-swap services to conceal their origins. In a cyber alert issued on October 31, the FBI identified the operation as “TraderTraitor” and said the theft took place on or around October 29, 2026.
The agency, working with the US Secret Service (USSS) and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division (IRS-CI), said it had observed the attackers converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum (ETH). US agencies urge crypto exchanges to block transactions The agencies have urged cryptocurrency exchanges, THORNode and RPC node operators, DeFi platforms, instant exchanges, blockchain analytics firms and other virtual asset service providers to block transactions involving wallet addresses linked to the stolen funds. The FBI has also published a list of cryptocurrency addresses holding or previously holding assets connected to the theft, and asked organisations to prevent transactions originating from or linked to these addresses. Attackers stole cryptos from Binance-controlled wallets The security breach was first reported on October 30, a day after billions of dollars in cryptocurrency were transferred from Binance-controlled wallets on October 29. Binance had suspended withdrawals Approximately $6.36 billion in digital assets was moved across 10 blockchain networks. Binance initially said it was investigating a potential security issue and temporarily suspended withdrawals across several networks as a precaution. How significant is this incident considered in the history of the crypto industry? If the estimates prove correct, this could be the largest crypto heist in history. The theft from Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit by North Korean hackers in 2025 was previously the biggest incident to date. The hack involved $1.5 billion. In other words, the theft from Binance is around four times larger than the Bybit incident. History’s 3 Biggest Crypto Hacks How many users have been affected by this breach? Have Indians also been affected? Binance has more than 300 million or 30 crore registered users in over 100 countries. Of these, an estimated 2 crore to 2.5 crore are Indian users. However, Binance has not yet released an exact figure for how many users’ individual accounts have been affected. The relief is that Binance’s US division, Binance US, is completely safe from this incident. The total number of Binance users in India is not available.