Binance hit by suspected $6.3 billion hack, the largest crypto theft on record

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, says about $6.3 billion in digital assets was affected by a security breach that began late on Thursday, October 29. If the figure holds, it would be the largest theft in the history of crypto, roughly four times the $1.5 billion taken from the Bybit exchange in February 2025.

In a statement, Binance said its preliminary investigation suggests a software engineer's laptop may have been compromised, giving the attackers access to internal systems and allowing them to start unauthorised withdrawals from the exchange's internet-connected "hot" wallets. The company said it had found no evidence that any wallet private keys were leaked.

Investigation widens

In a later update on Friday, Binance said its investigation had "uncovered additional points of breach" beyond the suspected laptop compromise, CoinDesk reported. Unauthorised outflows stopped once withdrawals were suspended. Binance had earlier said withdrawals were expected to resume within 48 hours, according to Help Net Security; CoinDesk reported on Friday that the exchange said it remained on track to restart them in about 45 hours.

What Binance has done

The exchange temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks were carried out; a later Binance update said deposits were operating normally. It says it will cover all customer losses from its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and other company funds, and that "user funds are safe."

About $3 billion of the affected assets has been frozen with the help of partners, according to Binance. Tether, which issues the USDT stablecoin, said it froze more than $1.5 billion, and Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said Circle had frozen more than 800 million USDC.

Who is suspected

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs linked the breach with "high confidence" to TraderTraitor, a hacking group tied to North Korea, citing similarities to earlier heists and the use of the Tornado Cash mixing service, Forbes reported. Chainalysis chief executive Jonathan Levin also said the attack was likely carried out by TraderTraitor. Binance has not named a culprit and says it is working with law enforcement to identify those responsible.

Estimates of the amount taken still vary: Chainalysis put it at $5.91 billion at the time of the theft, while TRM Labs put it at $6.36 billion.

"It does look like a hack on Binance." Changpeng Zhao, Binance co-founder, on X

Market impact

Crypto prices fell sharply. Bitcoin dropped about 4.5% to a six-week low of $76,368 and was trading around $77,450 on Friday afternoon (IST), down about 3.4% on the day, according to CoinDesk. Ether fell more than 3%. Binance's own BNB token slid between 5% and 7%. Several South Korean won-based exchanges issued withdrawal warnings to their users.

The investigation is continuing and the figures may change. We will update this story.