It is only a few days since what was initially termed a security incident at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, resulted in deposits and withdrawals being frozen. Only hours later the attack was labelled as a $6.3 billion crypto heist. By dollar value, it was reckoned to be the biggest theft in history.

The robbery was perpetrated after an exchange engineer’s laptop was compromised and hackers submitted a series of “unauthorised withdrawal transactions”, according to Binance. The funds were said to have been siphoned from the platform by a shadowy North Korean hacking group, although that claim has been denied by state officials.

In its speed, stealth and sheer size, the robbery had the hallmarks of a…