Binance suffers record $6.3 billion cryptocurrency theft

On October 29, 2026, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, fell victim to the largest digital asset heist in history, resulting in the theft of approximately $6.3 billion. The breach began shortly after 2000 GMT, with the majority of funds drained from wallets across ten different blockchains within a span of 20 minutes.

Blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the attack to North Korean hackers, citing technical patterns consistent with previous state-linked heists, including the 2025 attack on Bybit. While Binance initially suspected a compromised employee laptop, subsequent investigations revealed that attackers had breached the exchange’s “signing infrastructure,” which authorizes transactions. Binance confirmed that it has successfully frozen about $3 billion of the stolen assets. Co-CEO Richard Teng and co-founder Yi He have pledged that the exchange will cover all remaining losses using the company’s internal reserves and its Secure Asset Fund for Users.

The exchange maintains that customer deposits were unaffected by the breach and expects to resume full withdrawal services within 48 hours. As of now, the investigation into the full scope of the security compromise remains ongoing.