Why One Infected Laptop Led to the Largest Hack in History

Binance was reportedly drained of $6.3 billion by North Korea in what the guests describe as the largest hack in history, and about half of the stolen value was frozen afterward. The discussion centers on how a compromised developer laptop appears to have been the entry point, letting attackers reach a service container and sign malicious transactions without necessarily stealing Binance’s private keys.

Pablo Sabbatella says the attackers likely pre-signed 50 transactions with different nonces, then used one to convert a hot wallet into a smart account controlled by an external contract. That let them sweep assets as soon as funds arrived, including new deposits that were still flowing into the wallet during the theft.

Both guests argue EIP-7702 was not the cause of the breach, but it may have made the drain faster and more efficient. Pablo says the upgrade expands the attack surface and can help drainer operations steal more assets in one transaction, while the other guest frames the incident as fundamentally an operational security failure involving malware and possibly social engineering.