Binance hit by $6.3bn theft, the largest crypto heist ever recorded

Hackers stole about $6.3bn in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, in what is now the largest crypto theft on record, more than four times the previous record.

Blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs said an attacker moved approximately $6.36bn out of Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, with most of the theft unfolding in about 20 minutes starting late on Thursday, October 29.

How it happened

Binance first said the breach may have started with a compromised engineer's laptop, which gave the attacker access to internal systems and the ability to submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions. On Friday it said it had found "additional points of breach". It says it has seen no evidence that any wallet's private key, the secret code that controls funds, was leaked.

The method resembled the February 2025 attack on the exchange Bybit, in which $1.5bn was stolen and which the FBI attributed to North Korean hackers.

Who is suspected

TRM Labs said it had "high confidence" that the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit linked to the Lazarus Group. Analytics firm Chainalysis reached the same conclusion. Binance itself has not attributed responsibility, and North Korea routinely denies involvement in hacking.

United Nations experts have previously said that North Korea uses stolen cryptocurrency to help fund its weapons programmes.

Recovering the money

About $3bn has been frozen, including more than $2.3bn by Tether and Circle, the companies that issue the stablecoins the attacker took, according to Reuters. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to the US dollar, and their issuers can block specific wallets. Binance has not said what happened to the rest.

Binance said user funds were "safe" and that it would cover all losses, but warned that the $6.3bn figure "may continue to increase" as it traces assets.

Impact

Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals on Thursday and said it expected to resume withdrawals within about 45 hours. The hack weighed on crypto markets: bitcoin fell to a six-week low of $76,368, and ether dropped to a two-month low.

The theft is a reminder that, even at the biggest exchanges, a single compromised device can expose billions. Security experts advise users who hold large amounts of crypto to consider keeping long-term holdings in wallets they control rather than on exchanges.