Binance Hit by $6.3 Billion Crypto Hack

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has suffered an unprecedented cyber attack resulting in the theft of $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion) in digital assets, making it the largest cryptocurrency hack on record.

The world's largest exchange, which manages over 300 million registered accounts and held roughly $162.8 billion in assets under custody in its 2025 annual report, confirmed the breach on Thursday. The company immediately halted deposits and withdrawals while initiating tracing and recovery efforts alongside law enforcement and industry partners.

Multiple blockchain intelligence firms including TRM Labs, Chainalysis, and Check Point have attributed the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean state-backed hacking unit also known as the Lazarus Group. Researchers reported that the perpetrator moved billions in assets across eight blockchain networks in roughly 15 to 20 minutes, surpassing the previous record-setting $1.5 billion heist targeting the Bybit exchange in 2025.

Commenting on the magnitude of the breach, Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, described the event as a pivotal moment for the sector:

"This is an extraordinary hack, for its size and for the response... Few financial systems have ever shown a theft of this scale."

Check Point Chief Information Security Officer Jayant Dave stated the losses made it "the largest crypto theft on record".

Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis, emphasized that major platforms remain constant targets:

"Crypto exchanges are particularly attractive targets for hackers, regardless of where they are based, because - to borrow a line often attributed to bank robber Willie Sutton - 'that's where the money is'. While the scale of this incident is significant, attacks on exchanges are not new. Every exchange should remain vigilant."

Aravind Srinivasan, head of systematic OTC business at crypto market maker GSR, said simply: “It’s the biggest hack in history.”

Initial findings by Binance suggested the intrusion originated from a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, though subsequent investigations revealed additional breach points. In official statements, Binance leadership pledged that all user funds remain protected and that the company will fully reimburse the stolen amounts using its operational reserves and Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU).

Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng detailed the complex nature of the attack:

"To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer's permissions, and this was not a single 'one-click' action. It involved a more complex attack process. Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual. So far, we have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak."

Binance Co-CEO Yi He assured users via social media:

"Safety first: withdrawals are currently disabled until the environment is confirmed to be secure.”

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who stepped down in 2023 and received a presidential pardon in 2025, said: "as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered".

An industry-wide coordination effort succeeded in freezing approximately $3 billion of the affected assets. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze nearly $1.57 billion and over $800 million respectively, while World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform linked to the Trump family, collaborated with custodian BitGo to freeze impacted funds. Despite these freezes, attackers retain control over an estimated $2.4 billion to $3.3 billion in stolen Bitcoin and Ether.

In a formal statement, Binance outlined its operational posture:

"As a precaution, all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our security teams conduct checks, secure wallet infrastructure and trace affected assets, with the close support of our law enforcement and industry partners."

Cryptocurrency markets responded immediately to the news. Bitcoin dropped more than 4% to approximately $76,300, while secondary tokens like Ethereum and Solana saw declines approaching 10%. Shares in publicly traded crypto firms also fell, with Coinbase sliding nearly 5% and Strategy falling almost 6% in extended U.S. trading.

Independent financial editor Izabella Kaminska highlighted the structural realities exposed by the incident:

"The reality is and always was that the vast majority of crypto platforms - and in some cases assets too - are just as structurally centralised as conventional banking platforms. Unlike banks, however, when these systems get hacked or become insolvent, there is no recourse to a lender of last resort or deposit insurance fund. Depositors are on their own."

Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, added that the breach could impact broader market sentiment:

“It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralised exchanges, as well as counterparty, solvency and liquidity risks.”

Bernardo Brites, CEO of Trace Finance, pointed to the role of advancing technology in cyber exploits:

“It’s becoming very hard to counter hacks as AI can find vulnerabilities faster than you can fix them. My view is that users will move away from smaller and medium-sized exchanges, [as it is] becoming too risky to park your money somewhere that couldn’t cover a hack of meaningful size.”

Separate regional platforms including Binance.US and competitor Coinbase confirmed their systems were unaffected by the breach.