Hackers stole about $6.36 billion, roughly ₹60,400 crore, from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, on 29 October, in what blockchain analysts call the largest crypto theft on record.
Most of the money left Binance's "hot wallets" (wallets kept online for day-to-day withdrawals) in about 20 minutes, starting around 8:05 pm UTC (1:35 am IST on 30 October), according to the blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs. It is about four times the $1.5 billion taken from the Bybit exchange in February 2025.
Will Binance users lose money?
Binance says no. Co-CEO Richard Teng said the attack hit the exchange's own hot wallet and that customer assets are held under a separate system. Binance said it has set aside more than $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the losses and would "cover all losses".
Withdrawals were suspended on 29 October. Teng said on 30 October that the exchange aimed to restart them within about 40 hours, after rebuilding the withdrawal service, and to publish a full proof-of-reserves report by Monday. Deposits kept working, Binance said.
What was taken
According to TRM Labs:
| Blockchain | Approximate value stolen |
|---|---|
| Ethereum (ETH, USDT, USDC and other tokens) | $3.79 billion |
| Bitcoin (18,270 BTC) | $1.47 billion |
| Tron (USDT and TRX) | $628 million |
| XRP Ledger (233.46 million XRP) | $296 million |
| Solana | $96 million |
| Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, Polygon | about $77 million |
How it happened
TRM Labs says the attacker used an Ethereum feature called EIP-7702 to make a Binance hot wallet run code the attacker controlled, and on other blockchains got Binance's signing system to approve ordinary transfers. Preparation began at least 36 hours earlier, it says.
Binance first said a DevOps engineer's laptop had been compromised. Teng later said the attack was not a single "one-click" action, that the delegation "did not pass through our normal approval controls", and that "additional points of breach" had been found. Binance has not published a full root cause.
Who is behind it?
TRM Labs attributes the theft "with high confidence" to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group, citing on-chain evidence and similarities with earlier heists. Chainalysis co-founder Jonathan Levin also said TraderTraitor was likely behind it. Teng said Binance's own investigation "has not attributed responsibility to any individual". We could not find an official FBI statement on this incident.
How much has been frozen
About $3 billion had been frozen with partners by 30 October, Binance said. Stablecoin issuers acted fastest: Tether froze about 1.77 billion USDT and Circle about 825 million USDC, according to TRM Labs. Frozen funds are not yet returned funds. The attacker still controlled about $2.4 billion in ETH and BTC, which TRM says was being moved through decentralised exchanges and split into smaller amounts.
Market impact
On 30 October, Bitcoin fell 4.9% to about $76,937 and Binance's BNB token fell 8% to about $693, Cointelegraph reported.
What next
Binance says withdrawals will resume only after its rebuilt system passes testing, followed by the proof-of-reserves report. We will update this story when withdrawals reopen or when officials name those responsible.
How we verified this
VerifiedAmounts, timings and the chain-by-chain breakdown are from TRM Labs’ on-chain analysis (as of 30 October, 00:30 UTC). Binance’s statements are as posted by its co-CEOs and logged in Cointelegraph’s live coverage. The rupee figure is BDT’s conversion at the ECB reference rate of ₹94.96 per dollar (30 October). The North Korea attribution is from TRM Labs and Chainalysis; we could not find an official FBI statement on this incident, so we do not report one. Figures may change as the investigation continues.
Sources
- 1.North Korea steals USD 6.36 billion from Binance in the largest hack in history — TRM Labs (blockchain analytics)
- 2.Binance’s record $6.3B crypto hack as it happened — Cointelegraph
- 3.Richard Teng (Binance co-CEO) update on the security incident — Richard Teng on X
- 4.Hackers just stole $6 billion in crypto — CNN
- 5.Euro foreign exchange reference rates (INR, USD), 30 October 2026 — European Central Bank
