After hackers stole over $6 billion in cryptocurrencies from the trading platform Binance on Thursday, industry executives are scrambling to help the company, while blockchain researchers are assessing the losses and investigating who is responsible.

Initially, Binance stated that a laptop of an engineer that was compromised was the entry point for this attack, but the company later revised its assessment, saying that the scope of the attack was broader. As a result, crypto stocks fell on Friday.

Richard Teng ( Richard Teng ), Co-CEO of Binance, posted a video on X on Friday stating that the attackers used a "self-destruction mechanism" to cover their tracks, making Binance's investigation more difficult.

The following are some views from industry insiders regarding this Binance security incident.

Elliptic Co-founder Tom Robinson ( Tom Robinson )

Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist of blockchain intelligence company Elliptic, stated that this robbery "is almost certainly the largest known theft case in history by a single instance."

He stated that this scale surpasses the previous largest heist he mentioned – in 2003, Saddam Hussein stole $1 billion from the Central Bank of Iraq.

In an analysis published on the company's website on Friday, Robinson said that his company had found some indications suggesting that an organization associated with North Korea was responsible for the incident.

"Few actors are capable of coordinating attacks on 11 blockchains within about three hours," Robinson writes, "In recent years, most of the largest exchanges and cross-chain bridge attacks have been attributed to actors associated with North Korea."

Robinson said that before most of the stolen funds were frozen, hackers converted about $786 million of the stolen money into tokens that are more difficult to track.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong ( Brian Armstrong )

Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of another cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, stated on X that the company has contacted Binance to offer their assistance.

"Our team is doing everything possible to support the current situation, including preventing funds from being sent to affected wallets," Armstrong said.

Armstrong stated that at this moment, cooperation between competing encryption platforms is needed.

"The crypto industry has gone through many difficult times, and it always manages to come out stronger on the other side," he said, "and this time will be no different."

Former Anbin CEO Zhao Changpeng ( Changpeng Zhao )

Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, remains a major shareholder. He stated on X on Friday that "the recovery of tokens has already begun."

Zhao Changpeng said that he is grateful for the support provided by partners around the world in the cryptocurrency industry, including those from Thailand. Subsequently, during a round of interaction on X, he had a dispute with Elon Musk, which stemmed from Musk posting a playful emoji.

"Elon, I respect you very much, but now is not a time for joking. Please stop," said Zhao Changpeng, "I would be very grateful if you could show some support."

Chainalysis CEO Johnny Levine ( Jony Levin )

Jonny Levin, the CEO of blockchain data company Chainalysis, stated on X that this attack has typical characteristics of infiltration by North Korean hacker groups.

"North Korea is still using the same old tricks," Levine said on X, "Industry partners have already frozen about $3 billion, and we @chainalysis are still continuing to track all the funds."

A report released by the Chainalysis team on Friday stated that the relevant North Korean organization is named TraderTraitor, which has targeted cryptocurrency exchanges on multiple occasions to "fund the regime."

Chainalysis indicates that the reason why the hacker attack on Binance can be linked to TraderTraitor is that the funds stolen from Binance were observed to have been “mixed” with the funds stolen in a previous attack.

Chainalysis said in the report: 'This direct on-chain association strengthens our belief that TraderTraitor carried out a hacker attack on Binance.'

Anthony Scaramucci ( Anthony Scaramucci )

Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director and now a crypto investor, praised the rapid and effective communication among blockchain companies after what he described as a hacking incident on X on Friday.

"After the largest incident in the history of cryptography, Binance's response demonstrated what true industry leadership looks like," said Skarmucci.