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Binance Says Hackers Plotted $6.3 Billion Crypto Heist for Months
Confirmed
In Short: The Guardian and Newscord both reported that Binance faced an estimated total impact of about $6.3 billion after hackers stole from its platform in a record crypto heist, and the exchange temporarily suspended all withdrawals.
Binance customers withdrew $7.4 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange after it suffered what security experts said was the largest digital coin theft ever, according to CBS News. The hack, which occurred on October 29, 2026, resulted in a net outflow of $4.7 billion in the company's holdings.
The hacker group believed to be responsible for the attack, known as 'TraderTraitor,' was converting most of the stolen assets into Ethereum in a move to hide their tracks, the FBI said. This group was also responsible for a February 2025 attack on another crypto exchange, Bybit, that resulted in a $1.5 billion loss, according to the FBI.
Roughly $3 billion of the stolen assets were frozen, according to Binance. Freezing crypto funds allows certain issuers to block the transfer of their tokens anywhere in the world. Binance said it had covered around 95% of the impacted amount by early Sunday morning.
The exchange has since said its investigation uncovered “additional points of breach,” with CEO Richard Teng describing “a more complex attack process” that “did not simply use one engineer’s permissions.” Using 50 pre-signed authorizations, the attacker turned a Binance hot wallet into a “sweeper” contract and drained its assets, according to TRM Labs.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange with more than 300 million users, said the value of crypto holdings being withdrawn represents just 3% of its $157 billion in total assets. The net outflow is a relatively limited portion of Binance's overall asset base, the Binance spokesperson said in an email.
By Sunday, Binance said it has replaced nearly 100% of the cryptocurrencies that customers lost in the attack, by using part of its own crypto holdings or buying them in the markets to make their customers whole. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng told FOX Business that customers will not bear any losses following the massive $6.3B hack.
Withdrawal levels are stabilizing to what Binance would consider normal and expected on-chain activity. The crypto world is reeling after a hacker drained billions of dollars from Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange, on Thursday.
Binance said it was working with the FBI to identify the cyber criminals responsible and bring them to justice.
The hack is the largest cyber theft in history, surpassing the previous record of $1.5 billion from the February 2025 Bybit heist. The incident highlights the vulnerability of cryptocurrency exchanges and the complexity of cyber attacks in the digital currency space.
Background
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been hit by a $6.3 billion hack, the largest cyber theft in history, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
What's confirmed
- Tell us: have you been affected by the Binance hack?
What's still developing
- North Korean hackers used an elaborate scheme to pull off their $6.3 billion hack of Binance last week, the crypto exchange said — approaching one of its engineers as a fake company and conducting a series of phony job interviews before hacking into his computer.
- On October 29, 2026, analytics firms reported that large amounts of crypto-assets had been moved from wallets used by the exchange across multiple blockchain networks – a digital system for recording transactions that is run collectively by its users.
- The recent crypto market crash has made its way to North Korea, where hackers are bearing the brunt.
- The world’s largest crypto exchange lost about $6.3 billion in a roughly 20-minute burst on Thursday, October 29, 2026, and Reuters reported that the company then promised to cover every dollar from its own funds and to restart withdrawals in phases.
- Trump addressed the Binance hack, stating that the U.S. is investigating possible North Korean involvement.