Binance loses $6.3 billion in the largest crypto theft on record

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, says about $6.3 billion in crypto was taken from its wallets on 29 October. That makes it the largest crypto theft on record, roughly four times the $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit in February 2025. Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals and says it will cover all losses. Two blockchain analytics firms, TRM Labs and Chainalysis, attribute the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit.

In its official update, Binance said the initial investigation points to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. The attacker used it to get into a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The exchange says it found no evidence that wallet private keys leaked and promised a detailed post-mortem once the investigation is complete.

TRM Labs reconstructed the theft from the blockchain. Starting at 20:05 UTC, Binance wallets on ten networks, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, XRP Ledger, Tron and Solana, sent their balances to addresses controlled by one attacker, most of it within about 20 minutes. On Ethereum, the attacker used 50 signatures prepared in advance to turn a Binance hot wallet into a contract that forwarded its funds on command. A single transaction then moved 167,464 ETH and 1.615 billion USDT. In TRM's view, this means the attacker could make Binance's signing system approve transactions of its choosing. Preparation began at least 36 hours before the theft.

Read the full article on vpnlab.io: https://vpnlab.io/en/binance-6-3-billion-hack-largest-crypto-theft-2026-3127