The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has suffered the most severe crypto theft on record, with cybercriminals siphoning an estimated $6.3 billion in digital assets across 10 separate blockchain networks in a rapid 20-minute operation that unfolded on Thursday, October 29, according to leading blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis. In an official public statement released on Friday, October 30, Binance confirmed it has earmarked over $6.34 billion in dedicated funds, drawn from its corporate capital reserves and the purpose-built Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), to fully cover all losses and guarantee no customer will face any financial harm from the breach. Approximately $5 billion of that allocated coverage is already accessible, with the exchange working to source the remaining sum as quickly as possible. Immediately following the discovery of the unauthorized transaction activity, Binance temporarily paused all crypto withdrawal and transfer functions to conduct a full platform-wide security audit. To date, collaborative efforts with crypto asset issuers and cross-sector industry stakeholders have successfully frozen roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds, rendering those assets immovable for the foreseeable future. However, TRM Labs analysts warn that the vast majority of the remaining $3.3 billion in stolen assets has already been converted into privacy-focused cryptocurrencies that are not subject to the same issuer-level freezing mechanisms, significantly complicating recovery efforts as global law enforcement and blockchain tracing teams continue active investigations into the heist. Initial preliminary internal assessments from Binance suggested the breach may have originated from a compromised employee laptop that granted threat actors access to core transaction processing systems, but subsequent expanded probes have identified multiple potential entry vectors, and the full technical sequence of the attack has not yet been definitively mapped. The exchange has confirmed no evidence has emerged to indicate that the private cryptographic keys governing user cold wallets were leaked during the incident. Leading blockchain investigators have flagged high confidence that the attack was carried out by the TraderTraitor hacking group, a known affiliate of the notorious North Korea-linked Lazarus Group, a long-documented state-sponsored cybercriminal syndicate that has repeatedly targeted crypto infrastructure to generate illicit foreign revenue to fund Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs. This heist dwarfs the previous record-breaking $1.5 billion breach of crypto exchange Bybit in February 2025, which the U.S. FBI previously attributed to North Korean threat actors, though no formal official law enforcement confirmation of perpetrator identity for the Binance attack has been released to date. News of the unprecedented theft sent immediate shockwaves across already jittery global crypto markets: major digital assets including Bitcoin and Ether saw sharp selloffs, while shares of publicly traded rival exchange Coinbase posted notable losses. The breach arrives at a particularly vulnerable moment for the crypto sector, which is already facing sustained downward pressure from elevated U.S. interest rates and waning investor appetite for crypto-tracking investment products, and industry analysts warn the high-profile incident could further erode public trust in centralized crypto trading platforms that hold billions of dollars in user assets, making them prime high-value targets for cybercriminals. Binance has stated it intends to restore full withdrawal services within approximately 34 hours from its Friday public announcement, pending the successful completion of all mandatory security validation checks.
Hackers stelen US$ 6,3 miljard bij Binance in grootste cryptodiefstal ooit
