Hacker News

'Elite North Korean hackers' blamed for $6.3B Binance hack

33 points by tosh ago | 24 comments

sigmoid10 |next [-]

>Estimated total impact: ~$6.3B, with ~$3B frozen on-chain so far, in coordination with our blockchain partners

I always find it amusing to read this. Why would you even bother with a decentralized currency that can move freely across the globe when some centralized institutions can always interfere in the way legacy banks used to do with your money? Either they are misguiding you about the core value of their product or their ability to execute traditional interventions in cases of theft. You can't have the conveniences of both at the same time.

virtualritz |root |parent |next [-]

Exactly.

It's called the oracle problem. It's the Achilles heel of the whole idea.

And it's unsolvable. As soon as you want to trade some coin for something real, you need an oracle.

Wanna buy a flat in a world where (for argument's sake) even the ownership of that asset is tracked on a blockchain?

Let's say I come home from holidays and someone else lives there.

How do I then prove it's mine? Because it says so in some computer?

Someone has to believe that is true and let me enforce that ownership tie.

Those persons (a judge, the police, even if robots by then) are the oracle.

And a more common scenario than theft is btw legal ownership transfer.

What if I die somehow before giving the blockchain keys needed for that to someone?

How will my brother inherit the flat?

Oracle.

tokioyoyo |root |parent |next |previous [-]

At some point it clicked to me that crypto people don’t really care about the utility. Main purpose is creating new players in the world with immense amounts of power. In the end, it did produce a lot of rich people out of thin air, and I guess, served its purpose.

locknitpicker |root |parent [-]

> At some point it clicked to me that crypto people don’t really care about the utility. Main purpose is creating new players in the world with immense amounts of power.

There are many types of crypto people. Some of them are not crypto people per se, but people who saw crypto as a means to an end. Among them, there are plenty of people who seem to be invested in sheer fraud.

It's also important to note that there are many sides to the scheme. There's for example the instant transactions side, and the long term bet in scarcity. For example, Russia has been leaning heavily on crypto to circumvent sanctions due to their invasion of Ukraine.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2025/08/russias-use-of-...

> In the end, it did produce a lot of rich people out of thin air, and I guess, served its purpose.

It was not out of thin air. This is literally a grift where the people holding the bag saw their money find its way to the pockets of those who got rich from it.

MiroslavPokorny |root |parent [-]

Why would Russia need crypto, when they can trade with China or buy through middle men in Dubai or similar places ?

not-kinsale-joe |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Stable coins are not Crypto, they are just built on top of crypto to avoid normal financial regulations.

schleck8 |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Crypto bros sure are quick to inform law enforcement and centralized financial authorities if their self governance fails

boldaxolotl |root |parent |previous [-]

I'd bet most of the frozen $3B is stablecoins and tokens with an admin freeze function. Tether and Circle can blacklist an address in minutes. Nobody can freeze BTC or ETH. So the money they got back is the part that was never decentralized in the first place, which supports your point from the other side

jsw97 |next |previous [-]

Their haul is over 20% of North Korea’s GDP.

FabHK |root |parent |next [-]

It's well understood that crypto (scams, hacks) has contributed a third to half of the DPRK's foreign exchange income over the last few years.

JumpCrisscross |root |parent |previous [-]

> North Korea’s GDP

Would note that nobody—including probably the Kims—knows what this figure is.

leosanchez |root |parent [-]

Respected Comrade knows everything.

fhub |next |previous [-]

Sophisticated? Perhaps. But could also be run of the mill honey trap/romantic approach. Easier to slip by 2fas through a front door.

MiroslavPokorny |root |parent [-]

My money is on an inside job.

cedws |next |previous [-]

Random thought: when NK collapses, I wonder if there will be a rush to seize the crypto wallets. I guess the CIA will be there first.

monkeydust |root |parent [-]

If they are not already there!

jdw64 |next |previous [-]

It’s a pity. If he hadn’t been born in North Korea like that, he would have become a truly great programmer. My life is really hard and painful, but sometimes I think I’m better off than they are.

boldaxolotl |next |previous [-]

Same unit as Bybit in Feb 2025 (TraderTraitor), and if the laptop reports are right, the same way in: one developer's machine. Bybit lost $1.5B through a compromised Safe{Wallet} dev box. Twenty months later the largest exchange in the world loses four times that, apparently the same way. I'd like to know what signing setup lets one engineer's laptop reach $6B

NicoJuicy |previous [-]

[flagged]

nylonstrung |root |parent [-]

[flagged]

GJim |root |parent |next [-]

You do realise Trump and Kim Jong Un are both helping prop-up Putin?

Right?

f6v |root |parent [-]

A guy abducts a president of a sovereign state and puts him into New York prison without any legal basis. The whole country is complicit by allowing this to happen. Yet all you can think is Putin.

flohofwoe |root |parent |previous [-]

[flagged]

nyanmatt |root |parent [-]

Calling any of these articles “news” is something of a stretch. “Why Trump Fell in Love with Kim Jong Un”. Seriously? These are entertainment articles, at best. Where’s the Buzzfeed Top 10 Reasons Trump loves North Korea link?

flohofwoe |root |parent [-]

Is Fox News more to your liking? It even has "News" in the name ;)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-he-has-good-chem...

defrost |root |parent [-]

Maybe stick to primary sources; the horses mouth, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8OG3U66X9w