How big a deal is the $6.3bn crypto heist, who did it, and are investments safe?

It could be the biggest heist of any kind in history, according to Elliptic, a consultancy specialising in crypto-related crime. It is more than four times bigger than the previous largest crypto hack, the $1.5bn one targeting the Bybit exchange last year, and Elliptic says there does not appear to be anything comparable in the pre-crypto era.

“This incident is almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind,” says Tom Robinson, the consultancy’s chief scientist. “Before Bybit, that record was held by Saddam Hussein, who took $1bn from the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad on the eve of the 2003 Iraq War. The Binance theft is more than six times larger.”