Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, lost an estimated $6.3 billion to hackers early on 30 October 2026. It is the largest crypto theft on record and about four times the $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025.
How the Attack Happened
Binance’s preliminary investigation suggests the attacker compromised a DevOps engineer’s laptop. The attacker then used it to submit unauthorized withdrawals from the exchange’s hot wallets. Binance says it found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked, and it has revoked the affected access. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has linked the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group.
Chainalysis estimated the stolen funds at $5.912 billion at the time of the theft. Binance says about $3 billion has been frozen with help from partners including Tether and Circle.
Market Impact and Customer Funds
After the breach, Bitcoin fell below $77,000, Ether dropped to around $2,200, and BNB slipped below $700. According to TradingKey, about $1.5 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated.
Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals. It has pledged to cover all losses from its SAFU insurance fund and company funds. The exchange says the theft came from its own operational wallets, not from customer accounts. It has not said when withdrawals will resume.
People and Devices Are the Weak Point
Security firm CertiK has said that the largest breaches of 2026 came from compromised credentials and devices rather than smart-contract bugs. Binance has also warned users to ignore unofficial links, messages, and requests for account details, since scam campaigns often follow large thefts.
Source: The National
Original Publication Date: 30 October 2026