CZ Breaks Silence on the $6.3 Billion Night of Terror: When the Adversary Becomes North Korean Hackers, How Did Binance Win This State-Level Shadow War?

Compiled & Translated by: TechFlow

TechFlow Introduction: After Binance suffered a hack of $6.3 billion—the largest in crypto history—CZ gave his first public face-to-face interview on the Talking Tokens podcast. CZ detailed the entire emergency response process after learning of the attack on the platform in the middle of the night in the UAE, emphasizing that in the face of a major crisis, "rapid response and protecting user sentiment" are the twin core priorities. He pointed out that as crypto assets become deeply intertwined with the global economy, this attack—launched by North Korean state-level hackers—has long transcended the scope of any single platform and escalated into a systemic event affecting traditional finance and national security.

Facing high-frequency attacks brought about by the weaponization of AI, CZ acknowledged that the entire industry is confronting unprecedented and severe challenges. He stated bluntly that "the only way to fight a monster is to become a monster," urging the industry to heavily invest in AI defensive capabilities and calling on major institutions to jointly establish a security intelligence and fund-freezing alliance. Despite the severe short-term pain, Binance—having fully absorbed the losses and ensured that no user assets were harmed—saw net capital inflows within 24 hours. CZ firmly stated that every darkest moment in history has been a catalyst for technological evolution, and after hitting bottom, the direction upward has never changed.

Guest: CZ (Founder of Binance)

Host: Jacquelyn Melinek (Host of Talking Tokens, veteran Web3 journalist)

Podcast Source: Talking Tokens (https://x.com/jacqmelinek/status/2117572920902094967)

Original Title: BINANCE'S $6.3B HACK: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Air Date: November 3, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Dual-track response on the night of the incident: CZ learned of the hack while scrolling Twitter in the middle of the night in the UAE and immediately helped the team launch a dual-track effort of "containing the spillover" and "calming the market." Although no longer directly involved in daily operations, he leveraged his personal credibility to provide high-frequency, transparent updates as quickly as possible, curbing the spread of panic to the greatest extent.
• All hacks are fundamentally preventable: Companies easily develop complacency during extended periods of smooth operation. As long as sufficient effort and resources are invested, the vast majority of security incidents could have been avoided.
• Crypto security has escalated to a national security issue: Crypto assets are now deeply nested with real-world assets (RWA), stablecoins, and government bonds. The North Korean hacking group attacked not just Binance but also caused spillover effects on the global financial system. Defense must be viewed from the perspective of national-level and global financial infrastructure.
• Technology maturity and mainstream adoption: a chicken-and-egg problem: You cannot wait for technology to be 100% mature before pushing for adoption, because without large-scale adoption, there won't be enough capital to invest in underlying security. Evolving through trial and error and painful lessons is an objective law of technological development.
• AI weaponization accelerates attack frequency—the industry must fight monsters with monsters: AI has exponentially increased the speed of vulnerability discovery and attacks, with as many as four exchanges attacked in a single day. Defenders must heavily invest in AI security capabilities and form an industry security defense alliance of major trading platforms and protocols to achieve cross-platform intelligence sharing and rapid freezing.
• Firmly bullish in the medium and long term—crises drive stronger defense systems: Every painful episode helps the system identify and fill gaps. AI will likewise find blockchain's underlying vulnerabilities before quantum computing breakthroughs occur. After Binance absorbed the full losses, the market demonstrated remarkable resilience, achieving net capital inflows within 24 hours—a testament to users' long-term trust in its underlying risk control system.

2. Notable Quotes

• "In the subconscious of anyone running a crypto trading platform, security incidents can happen at any time—you can never 100% rule them out. What matters most is always the immediate rapid response and containment."
• "All hacks are fundamentally preventable. Companies tend to become complacent after long periods of calm, but as long as you invest enough resources and effort, nothing is unpreventable."
• "The only way to fight a monster is to become a monster yourself. Hackers are frantically using all kinds of open-source and closed-source AI models to launch attacks—we must build our defenses with even more powerful AI."
• "Technology maturity and large-scale adoption are like the chicken and the egg. You can't sit around waiting for technology to reach perfection, because without real-world applications and market demand, the underlying technology will never receive enough capital reinvestment."
• "I'm not giving investment advice, but social media often says 'you only truly hit bottom after a heavy blow.' Once you hit bottom, the only direction ahead is up. After the pain, positive forces will ultimately prevail."

3. Full Transcript

1. A Night of Shock: Midnight Twitter Tremors in the UAE and the Dual-Track Emergency Playbook

Jacquelyn Melinek: Welcome back to Talking Tokens. I'm your host, Jacquelyn Melinek. Today's guest needs no lengthy introduction—he's Binance founder and former CEO CZ. CZ, hello and welcome to the show.

CZ: Thank you so much for having me. Great to be here.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Let me set the stage. Last Thursday, Binance suffered the largest hack in crypto industry history, with losses amounting to $6.3 billion. The FBI subsequently attributed the attack to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor. Before we dive into the technical and macro implications—CZ, can you take us back to that night last Thursday? What were you doing? How did you find out? Had you ever anticipated a crisis of this magnitude?

CZ: It was around midnight in the UAE. I was just getting ready for bed and was habitually scrolling through Twitter. That's when team members sent me an urgent notification that Binance was under attack. Almost simultaneously, I saw related chatter on my Twitter timeline, but I initially couldn't be sure whether it was a real attack or just a rumor. I was instantly wide awake—all trace of sleepiness gone. It was genuinely a huge shock.

But for anyone who has run a crypto trading platform for a long time, deep down, security incidents are a shadow that can fall at any moment. You can never 100% eliminate that risk. Since the potential is always there, what matters is the speed of response after an incident occurs. I believe rapid handling and protecting users are the overriding priorities.

When facing an extreme situation like this, there are usually two tracks that must run in parallel: the first is to immediately plug the vulnerability, thoroughly contain the deterioration, and prevent further spread of losses; the second parallel track is to ensure users don't panic and avoid triggering a chain reaction of market selling. Since I no longer manage Binance's day-to-day operations, I focused my energy on communicating with the external community. Many industry peers follow me on Twitter, and my voice carries far in the industry. I did my best to sync the facts I had to the community as quickly and transparently as possible.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Many people indeed feel that Binance's emergency response was extremely fast and your public statements were very timely. This stands in stark contrast to how many platforms in the industry have been vague after being hacked in the past. Looking back today, what's the biggest lesson this incident has taught you?

CZ: I've been doing deep post-mortems over the past few days. My conclusion is very clear: no hack is unpreventable. All security incidents could have been stopped if sufficient effort and attention had been invested beforehand. There must be enormous room for improvement here.

Companies tend to have an inertia—during long periods of smooth operation without incidents, people easily become blindly optimistic and complacent. Until disaster actually strikes, there are always minor anomalies that get overlooked. This painful lesson tells us that there is absolutely no room for complacency in security defense.

2. The National Security Dimension: North Korean Hackers Behind $6.3 Billion and Global Financial Spillover

Jacquelyn Melinek: You mentioned the FBI explicitly identified this as the work of North Korean state-level hackers. Does this mean crypto security is no longer just an internal attack-and-defense issue for a commercial company, but has evolved into a geopolitical matter concerning national security and even global security?

CZ: It possesses all three attributes simultaneously, because there are no longer clear boundaries between them. For a commercial company, this is undoubtedly a life-or-death issue—not just for Binance, but for every crypto protocol and every trading platform. In fact, North Korean hackers have been frequently attacking traditional banking systems for years; they are notorious in the financial hacking space.

More critically, today's crypto industry already has global macroeconomic influence. The modern global financial system is accelerating its integration with the crypto ecosystem: we have tokenized stocks, real-world assets (RWA), and a massive stablecoin system pegged to U.S. Treasury bills. All of these are deeply intertwined with the real economy.

Therefore, a major blow to the crypto space is now large enough to transmit real, tangible economic impact outward. You absolutely cannot view this in isolation as just a problem for one specific sector or one company. It devastates individual companies, affects the entire industry, and ultimately spills over into the global financial system. Given the magnitude of its potential destructive power, it has rightfully risen to the level of national security assessment.

3. The Adoption Paradox and the AI Arms Race: Fighting Monsters with Monsters, Building an Industry-Wide Security Alliance

Jacquelyn Melinek: As more and more capital flows on-chain, institutions and the general public are eager to participate, but state-level hackers like North Korea's lurk in the shadows waiting to strike. Does this mean the underlying technology simply isn't ready to handle mainstream adoption? Are we truly ready?

CZ: This is actually a classic chicken-and-egg paradox. Without large-scale adoption, technology R&D won't receive sufficient capital and resources; but if pushed to the masses too early, an immature foundation faces severe security challenges. Supply and demand must move forward together in a mutual tug-of-war.

You can never wait for a technology to be 100% mature before bringing it to market, because in the real world there is no such thing as absolutely mature technology—it's always in dynamic evolution. Especially now, with AI evolving at an astonishing rate, the AI explosion has massively amplified security risks. In the past, we might hear about a major hack every few months, then every few weeks—and just yesterday, four crypto platforms were attacked in a single day.

As AI tools become exponentially more lethal, the frequency of attacks will only increase. Against this backdrop, the only way to fight a monster is to become a monster yourself. Defenders must mobilize more advanced AI models at scale to build automated defensive fortifications.

Frankly, the AI industry and big tech have not yet fully figured out how to rapidly provide systematic defense tools before hackers strike. But this is an entirely solvable engineering problem. Beyond deepening collaboration with top AI technology providers, I strongly call for the industry to establish a crypto security defense alliance as soon as possible.

Major platforms and protocols must sit down together, share painful lessons and best defense practices, conduct cross-code audits, and establish millisecond-level cross-platform rapid freezing mechanisms when on-chain anomalies occur. Given the malicious incidents of recent months, I believe this security alliance will materialize faster than people expect. I personally hope to contribute to making this alliance happen.

4. Government Coordination: The Crypto Industry Desires Substantive Help from Washington

Jacquelyn Melinek: Regarding this incident, Donald Trump said in an interview on October 31 that if it's confirmed to be North Korea's doing, he would engage with North Korea on the matter. Now that the FBI has confirmed it, how do you view that statement? Do you hope Washington, D.C. will take concrete action? Have you personally communicated with Trump's team?

CZ: First, to clarify—neither regarding this incident nor any other matter have I personally had direct communication with President Trump or anyone in Washington.

However, we would very much welcome their help. I personally, Binance as a company, and the entire crypto industry are extremely eager for substantive support from the U.S. government level. If anyone in the world can truly engage directly with North Korea on state-level cyberattacks like this, it's probably only the governments of the U.S. and China that carry that kind of weight. As long as it can curb crimes against financial infrastructure, we warmly welcome any official assistance.

I've seen the video clip circulating online—Trump appeared to be at some social gathering, responding off-the-cuff to a random question from a reporter. You can't treat it as a carefully worded formal official statement. But I know he's someone who leans toward taking concrete action to solve problems. We remain open and hopeful for any official-level assistance.

5. Remarkable Resilience After the Crisis: Net Inflows Within 24 Hours and Ultimate Optimism

Jacquelyn Melinek: The market's reaction to this massive hack was surprising. Prices dipped slightly but didn't experience the kind of devastating panic crash seen in the past. How do you interpret this resilience?

CZ: Transparent communication of information played a decisive role at that moment. Immediately after the incident, Binance and I made it crystal clear to the entire network as fast as possible: all losses would be fully absorbed by the platform, no ordinary user funds were harmed, and user assets were absolutely safe.

As long as users' vital interests are fully guaranteed, the market's core panic is quickly anchored. What's more interesting is the on-chain data flow. After a hack, users choosing to withdraw funds is a completely normal instinctive reaction. But of the funds withdrawn, less than 10% flowed to other centralized exchanges—the vast majority was moved to users' own non-custodial self-custody wallets.

However, once users transfer funds to self-custody wallets, they quickly discover they must personally back up their private keys and seed phrases, bearing enormous self-custody risk. In reality, most people who lose money in self-custody do so not because of hacker intrusions but because of their own operational mistakes. So after the initial emotional release, users found that Binance had perfectly patched the vulnerability and remained as solid as ever, and they chose to redeposit and return.

Within less than 24 hours after the incident, Binance's hourly on-chain data had already turned to net inflows. This powerfully confirmed the deep trust the platform has accumulated over time. There may still be aftershocks in the coming weeks, but as long as the industry's fundamentals remain intact, capital flowing back in is only a matter of time.

Jacquelyn Melinek: Many viewers want to know—if you could sum it up in one sentence, what would you most want to convey to the entire industry at this darkest moment that you haven't yet tweeted?

CZ: The core remains a reverence for the speed of technological evolution. AI's exponential explosion far exceeds ordinary people's comprehension, and the crypto industry's investment in underlying security is currently far from sufficient. Many truly cutting-edge AI defense tools have yet to reach