What is the largest bank heist in history?
Well, before today, it was a bank heist in Baghdad, Iraq, according to the Guinness World Records. Details are scarce about the whole thing because the country was embroiled in a war at the time. But, what we do know is $282,000,000 went missing that day - and was never recovered.
That's already a pretty humongous sum, right? Well, it pales in comparison to the bank heist we have just witnessed. One insider has branded it the "largest bank heist in history". But, it's not like the type of heist you would see typically.
There was no elaborate getaway car planned, there were no bank vaults opened - physically, at least. It was all done through a complex series of hacks on the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, per the New York Post.
And Binance is now down a whopping $6.3 billion dollars. That's right - they've heisted 22 times the amount that has ever been done before.
Binance security teams originally thought the heist was related to a compromised laptop. But, the co-CEO of the crypto company, Richard Teng, explained Friday there were "additional points of breach".
The sophisticated hack even reportedly used a "self-destruct mechanism". That's the type of phrase that could be used in a movie, admittedly... The CEO admitted the mechanism "[makes] it more difficult for us to trace and investigate".
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The Heist Looks to Have Been Done by North Korean Affiliated Attackers
The suspects behind the wild bank heist are called TraderTraitor. And it's not the first time they've struck - experts say their unique way of exfiltrating the funds across the net makes their calling card unique.
But, it looks like Binance have managed to get some of the $6.3 billion back. $2.8 billion was seized quickly, but it is estimated that $3 billion has been lost. It's expected by US officials that the money may be used to fund North Korea's rocket program - of which half is reportedly funded by these types of crypto heists.
If you own crypto through Binance, don't worry, however. They also added that they are setting aside $6 billion of company funds to make sure their customers are fine on that front.
