At 4 p.m. on October 29, 2026, hackers began a 20-minute operation that would result in the largest crypto heist in history. Binance—the world’s biggest crypto trading platform—fell victim to a North Korean hacking group known as “TraderTraitor” that drained more than $6 billion from multiple blockchains. Although Binance managed to freeze around 44 percent of the stolen funds in the immediate aftermath, the remainder, in bitcoin and ether, will effectively be impossible to recover.

This incident has an unfortunate air of inevitability about it. The cryptocurrency industry has been a target of high-profile cyber-enabled heists over the past decade. And the hacking group involved is the same actor responsible for the…