Binance said the estimated impact of a cyberattack on its platform was about $6.3 billion, potentially making it the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. The exchange said roughly $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen on-chain, but did not explain the status of the remaining $3.3 billion. It said it expected to resume withdrawals within 44 hours.
The company said the attack involved unauthorized withdrawal transactions after an intruder gained access to a laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer and then to a service container. Binance later said it had found additional points of compromise. It reported no evidence that private wallet keys had been leaked and said its investigation had not identified the attacker.
Binance said customer funds were safe and that it would cover losses. Co-CEO Richard Teng said the company’s Secure Asset Fund for Users, alongside company resources, would be used to do so. The fund is a $1 billion bitcoin reserve intended to protect customer assets in the event of a security failure.
Several crypto firms helped freeze assets. Tether said it had frozen nearly $1.57 billion related to the incident, while Circle reported freezing more than $800 million. Binance co-founder Yi He said about $27 million in stablecoins and roughly $2 million in World Liberty tokens had been frozen; she also reported that Ripple had frozen around $200 million. The exchange said it was coordinating with partners and authorities.
Blockchain research firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis identified similarities between the attack and previous thefts linked to TraderTraitor, a group associated with North Korea. TRM said it had high confidence in that assessment and that much of the theft took place within about 20 minutes. Binance has not attributed responsibility, and North Korea has repeatedly denied allegations of state-linked cyber theft.
The news sent cryptocurrency prices lower. Bitcoin fell to a six-week low of $76,368, while ether dropped more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178 before markets steadied. Binance’s BNB token was down 5% over 24 hours at $709.70. Coinbase shares fell 4.8%, while Strategy shares declined nearly 6% in extended US trading.
The reported loss would far exceed the previous record cited in the report: the $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit in February 2025. Other major crypto thefts include $610 million from Poly Network in 2021, $540 million from the Ronin Network and $320 million from Wormhole in 2022, and $530 million from Tokyo-based Coincheck in 2018. Mt. Gox lost about $500 million in bitcoin between 2011 and 2014 before filing for bankruptcy, leaving around 24,000 customers unable to access their funds.
TRM Labs researchers said nearly $2.9 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen across almost 150 attacks last year. Binance’s annual report for 2025 said the exchange had 335 million registered users worldwide and held about $162.8 billion in assets under custody.
Sources: Folha Mercado.