Cryptoupdated 1h ago2 min read
Binance Says Hackers Stole About $6.3 Billion, Teng Cites Unauthorized Withdrawals
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Binance suffered a security incident estimated at about $6.3 billion, the largest crypto theft. About $3 billion of the losses have been frozen and withdrawals temporarily halted.
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Binance $6.3B theft
Binance said hackers stole about $6.3 billion from the exchange, which Cointelegraph described as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, and Binance said it set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng told users, "To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer's permissions, and this was not a single 'one-click' action," and he added that the investigation had not attributed responsibility to any individual.
Binance said the incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to reach a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance said it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak, and it said it would publish a full technical post-mortem and an updated Proof of Reserves once remediation was complete.
North Korea-linked claims
Blockchain intelligence firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis reported that the threat actors behind the coordinated attack originated from North Korea, and TRM Labs said the attackers targeted Binance wallets across 10 distinct blockchains. Reuters reported that TRM Labs stated with "high confidence" that key characteristics of the intrusion closely mirror previous North Korean-sponsored operations, including a major 2025 cyberattack against cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.
Binance said it found no evidence that wallet private keys were compromised, and it said the incident stems from multiple factors as its security team traced the full attack path through the compromised computer. Aravind Srinivasan, head of the systematic OTC business at GSR, described the incident as "the biggest hack in history," while Binance co-founder Yi He said user funds are safe and that Binance would cover all losses from its SAFU fund and company funds.
Freezes, suspensions, fallout
Binance said about $3 billion had been frozen onchain with partners, and Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in USDT, Circle froze more than $800 million in USDC, and Ripple helped halt about $200 million.
“User funds are safe. Binance will cover all hacking losses.”
Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorization, and brought in law enforcement, while Aave froze its lending markets as a precaution.
Binance co-founder and CEO Yi He wrote, "User funds are safe. Binance will cover all hacking losses. Deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement," and Binance said it would cover losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds.
Market reaction followed the announcement, with Bitcoin falling more than 4% to below $78,000 and the BNB token dropping more than 5%, while Cointelegraph said Binance was rebuilding its withdrawal service and conducting a company-wide security review.