Binance hit by ~$6.3B hack, the largest crypto theft on record; ~$3B frozen

What happened?
On 29 October 2026, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, suffered a security incident that it estimates had a total impact of around $6.3 billion, making it the largest crypto theft on record and far above the ~$1.5 billion Bybit hack of February 2025. Onchain data showed billions of dollars in BTC, ETH, stablecoins and other assets leaving Binance hot wallets across multiple blockchains, most of it within about 20 minutes.

How did it happen?
Binance's initial investigation suggests a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop let an attacker reach a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The company says it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak and will publish a full technical post-mortem. Blockchain investigators have linked the attack to North Korea, according to CNBC.

Response
Around $3 billion has been frozen onchain with partners: Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in USDT, Circle more than $800 million in USDC, and Ripple helped halt about $200 million. Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorization and brought in law enforcement. Co-founder Yi He said user funds are safe and that Binance will cover all losses from its SAFU fund and company funds; withdrawals are expected to resume within about 48 hours. Aave froze its lending markets as a precaution. Binance.US says it was not affected.

Market impact
Bitcoin fell more than 4% to below $78,000, the BNB token dropped more than 5%, and Circle shares slid about 5% in after-hours trading.

Sources
Binance: Security Incident Update · CNBC · AP · TechCrunch · CoinDesk