Crypto News

Binance Hack: $6.3 Billion Stolen in Largest Crypto Heist Ever as Bitcoin Falls

Abdulrahim Mughal October 30, 2026 · 6 min read

Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, has suffered what looks like the biggest theft in the history of crypto. The company says about $6.3 billion in digital assets were taken in a security incident on Thursday, 29 October 2026. It has frozen around $3 billion of the stolen funds so far, and it promises that users will not lose money.

The news sent shockwaves through the whole crypto market. Bitcoin fell about 5 percent and dropped below $77,000. Other major coins fell too. The incident is now bigger than any crypto hack seen before, and it has raised fresh questions about how safe even the largest exchanges really are.

What happened on Thursday

Binance first told users it was looking into reports of a possible security problem. Soon after, it paused all deposits and withdrawals as a safety step. The company's co-founder Yi He said the exchange would cover all hacking losses from its own funds, and that user funds are safe.

Binance later said its first checks point to a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers. According to the company, the attacker used that laptop to reach a service system and send out withdrawals that were not allowed. Binance says it has found no sign that private wallet keys leaked.

Blockchain data firms tracked large sums moving out of Binance wallets on Thursday afternoon in the United States. One wallet alone sent out more than 167,000 ether in a single move, followed by more funds from a second wallet. The stolen assets were then moved through trading and lending platforms, which made them harder to follow.

Billions frozen, but billions still missing

By Thursday night, about $3 billion of the stolen crypto had been frozen with help from other companies. Tether, which issues the USDT stablecoin, froze more than $1.57 billion. Circle, which issues USDC, froze more than $800 million. Ripple froze about $200 million, and World Liberty Financial froze about $27 million in stablecoins plus about $2 million of its own tokens.

That still leaves roughly half of the stolen money unaccounted for. Binance says the frozen total could grow as it works with police, token issuers and blockchain tracking firms to trace more funds. The company has also promised a full technical report once its investigation is complete.

A separate check of Binance's own reserve records raised another concern. CoinDesk found that one of the emptied wallets was listed in Binance's 1 October proof of reserves, the monthly report that shows customers their money is fully backed. About 204,500 ether was taken, which would leave Binance's ether backing near 94 percent instead of 100 percent, based on those figures. Binance's next reserve snapshot, due on 1 November, should show whether it has replaced the missing assets.

Who is blamed for the attack

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said with high confidence that the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit linked to the Lazarus Group. Other security firms, including Blockaid, pointed in the same direction. North Korea has been blamed for several large crypto thefts in recent years.

If that link is confirmed, it would fit a pattern. The previous record crypto theft was the $1.5 billion taken from the Bybit exchange in 2025, which investigators also linked to North Korean hackers. The Binance theft is more than four times that size.

Binance itself has not named an attacker. It says only that its investigation is still going on, and that it is working with law enforcement and intelligence partners.

Markets fall, and more pain may follow

Crypto prices dropped fast after the news broke. Bitcoin fell below $77,000 before recovering some ground to trade about 2 to 3 percent lower by Friday midday in Hong Kong. Ether and BNB, the coin linked to Binance, also fell sharply, with BNB down close to 10 percent at one point. More than $1 billion in leveraged futures bets were wiped out as prices fell.

Standard Chartered warned that prices could fall further until more details come out and frozen funds are released. Binance.US, a separate exchange, said it was not affected by the incident.

The same day also brought a second, smaller incident. Prediction market Polymarket briefly halted international trading after a third-party provider was breached and more than $2.6 million was drained from user accounts. The two incidents together made Thursday one of the worst days the crypto industry has seen.

What this means for ordinary users

For people who keep money on an exchange, the lesson is simple but hard. Large exchanges can be hacked, even ones with huge security teams. Binance says its users are protected this time because the company will pay for the losses. But not every exchange could afford a $6.3 billion hit.

Experts often advise users to move large holdings to their own wallets, where they control the keys, and to keep only trading money on exchanges. Users should also watch out for scams in the days after a big hack, when fake support messages and phishing links spread fast. Binance has told users to trust only its official channels for updates.

For now, withdrawals remain paused while Binance runs security checks. The key questions are how much of the remaining money can be frozen, whether the company replaces the missing reserve assets, and what its full report reveals about how the attackers got in.