Binance hit by $6.3 billion hack, the largest on record; about $3 billion frozen

The largest exchange in crypto just suffered what may be the largest theft in crypto history. Binance estimated the impact of a security incident at about $6.3 billion, with around $3 billion of affected assets frozen on-chain so far, CNBC reported. The BBC calls it potentially the largest hack in history, eclipsing the record $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025.

Binance said its initial investigation suggests "the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions." The exchange added: "We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak."

Who froze what

Stablecoin issuers moved fast. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm froze around $1.6 billion, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle froze more than $800 million in assets linked to the incident, according to the BBC. CNBC reported that Ripple helped halt the movement of $200 million, per Binance co-founder Yi He.

Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorization and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms. Yi He said deposits continued to operate normally and that Binance expects to begin resuming withdrawals within the next 48 hours, CNBC reported. Binance says it will cover all losses from its SAFU fund and company funds, and will publish a technical post-mortem and an updated Proof of Reserves. Binance.US said it is not affected, according to the BBC.

North Korea link

TRM Labs attributed the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored unit the FBI previously linked to the Bybit hack, CNBC reported. TRM estimated that about $6.36 billion was moved from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, most of it within about 20 minutes, and that preparations began at least 36 hours before the theft. Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin also pointed to TraderTraitor.

Solvency and market reaction

Sean Farrell of Fundstrat Global Advisors told CNBC the breach "does not currently appear to create meaningful solvency risk for Binance." He estimated about $3.3 billion remained unfrozen and that the SAFU fund, worth roughly $1.2 billion, could cover about a third of that, with the rest coming from Binance's own funds. The tell to watch, he said, is how quickly withdrawals resume and whether outflows stay orderly.

Markets reacted sharply. Bitcoin fell more than 4% to $77,994.96, ether dropped 4.84% to $2,247.45 and BNB slid 7.68% to $694.45, according to CNBC's markets live blog.