Binance hack splits crypto into funds that freeze and funds that don't

Attackers in the $6.3 billion Binance theft, identified by TRM Labs and Chainalysis as North Korea's TraderTraitor unit, are dividing proceeds between tokens that issuers can freeze and assets like ETH, BTC and TRX that cannot be frozen. Tether and Circle blacklisted about 1.77 billion USDT and 825 million USDC; Ripple froze 40.5 million RLUSD, World Liberty Financial locked 27.8 million USD1, and Arbitrum's Security Council helped stop $30.5 million. About $2.86 billion remains untouchable, including $1.09 billion in ETH, $1.41 billion in BTC and 682.9 million TRX. Binance blamed a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, halted deposits and withdrawals, and said its SAFU reserve and company funds would cover customer losses.