Binance Hack: North Korean Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion in Biggest Crypto Theft Ever

The Binance hack on October 29, 2026 is now officially the largest theft in the history of crypto. Attackers drained about $6.3 billion in digital assets from the exchange’s hot wallets in a single evening, and blockchain investigators link the attack to North Korea’s state hackers. Binance has confirmed the incident and says it will cover all losses, so customers will not lose their money.

Simply put, nothing on this scale has happened before. The previous record, the Bybit hack in February 2025, was about $1.5 billion, so this attack is roughly four times bigger. Therefore, below is everything we know so far: what happened, how the hackers got in, who is behind it, what Binance promised and what it means for you.

What Happened in the Binance Hack

The attack hit on Thursday evening, European time, and it moved very fast. According to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, the hackers prepared for at least 36 hours, then emptied Binance hot wallets on ten different blockchains within a few hours.

At first, Binance described the event as a “security incident” and paused withdrawals as a precaution. Within hours, stablecoin issuers and blockchain teams started freezing stolen funds, and by the end of the night the exchange confirmed that around $3 billion had been locked.

How Much Was Stolen in the Binance Hack

Binance estimates the total impact at about $6.3 billion. TRM Labs puts the figure at $6.36 billion at the prices of the moment, while Chainalysis estimated roughly $5.9 billion. Of course, the exact number moves with crypto prices, but every estimate is far above any previous hack.

To put this in context, the loss equals roughly 4 percent of the approximately $144 billion that Binance held for customers before the hack, according to DefiLlama. In other words, it is a huge sum, but it is still a small share of the exchange’s total reserves.

The Biggest Crypto Hack Ever

Indeed, security experts agree that nothing comparable has ever happened in crypto. “This is the biggest crypto hack in history,” Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan told CoinDesk. Here is how the Binance hack compares with the largest thefts of the past decade.

Clearly, the gap is enormous. The Binance hack alone is larger than the next four incidents on this list combined. Moreover, it hit the world’s biggest exchange, which makes it a turning point for the whole industry.

How the Binance Hack Happened

So far, Binance has not published a full report, but early findings give a clear picture. According to CoinDesk, the initial investigation points to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. From there, the attacker apparently reached an internal service and submitted unauthorized withdrawal requests.

However, Binance said it found “no evidence of any wallet private key leak.” On Ethereum, the attackers also used a newer feature called EIP-7702, which lets a wallet hand its behaviour over to a smart contract. They had prepared 50 signed authorizations in advance, and one of them redirected the hot wallet to a contract that only they controlled.

Meanwhile, on the other nine blockchains, the funds left through ordinary signed transfers. TRM Labs says this suggests the attackers got access to the system that signs hot wallet transactions, rather than stealing the keys themselves. Binance has promised a full post-mortem report once the investigation is finished.

Who Is Behind the Binance Hack

TRM Labs attributes the attack “with high confidence” to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit that is part of the wider Lazarus Group. Well-known blockchain investigator ZachXBT also named Lazarus as the likely attacker, and Blockaid said the methods match earlier North Korean operations.

Overall, the pattern is familiar. The hackers funded their wallets through a crypto mixer, prepared everything well in advance and then executed the theft in one fast burst. Similarly, the FBI linked the same group to the Bybit hack in 2025, and TRM also compares the method with the KelpDAO attack in April 2026.

In fact, North Korea has used crypto theft for years to raise money for the regime. As a result, analysts expect the stolen funds to move through swaps, cross-chain bridges and over-the-counter brokers in the coming weeks, which is why fast freezes matter so much.

Binance Promises to Cover All Losses

The most important message for customers came within hours. In a statement to Fox Business, a Binance spokesperson said: “User funds remain safe,” and “Binance will cover all losses.” The company added that “users will not bear the financial impact of this incident.”

Soon after, co-CEO Yi He repeated on X that Binance “will cover all hacking losses.” Founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the exchange, also posted that “user funds are safe.” According to Binance, the money will come from its Secure Asset Fund for Users, known as SAFU, together with the company’s own funds.

Notably, SAFU is an emergency fund that Binance created in 2018 exactly for situations like this. It currently holds roughly $1 billion in bitcoin, so company money will cover the rest. In addition, Binance plans to publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the incident is resolved, which will let users check that customer balances are fully backed.

How Much Has Been Frozen

Fortunately, one reason the damage may end up smaller than $6.3 billion is the fast reaction of the industry. Several companies froze stolen funds within the first hours:

• Tether froze nearly $1.57 billion in stablecoins linked to the attack.
• Circle froze more than $800 million in USDC.
• Ripple froze part of its RLUSD stablecoin that the hackers had taken.
• World Liberty Financial froze its USD1 tokens held by the attacker.
• The Arbitrum Security Council froze about $30 million in ETH and ARB.

All in all, roughly $3 billion is now locked, according to Binance. However, the attackers still control large amounts of ETH and BTC, which cannot be frozen in the same way. That part of the loot is the main focus for investigators now.

What the Binance Hack Means for Users

If you have funds on Binance, then the key point is that the exchange says your balance is safe and fully covered. Even so, a few things have changed for now:

• Withdrawals are paused. Binance says they should start resuming gradually within about 48 hours of its October 30 update.
• Deposits work. Yi He said deposits “remain operational and unaffected.”
• Trading continues. Your balance stays on your account while the security checks run.

Above all, do not panic and do not move funds through unofficial channels. Binance has asked users to follow only its official website, app and social accounts for updates. For a full guide on how Binance protects funds and how to lock down your own account, read Is Binance safe? What users need to know.

How the Crypto Market Reacted

The news hit the market hard, but it did not cause a crash. In early Asian trading on Friday, Bitcoin fell about 2 percent to a six-week low of $77,646, while ether slipped to a two-month low of about $2,239. BNB, Binance’s own token, dropped more than 8 percent in 24 hours to around $694.

Other tokens tied to the attack also moved as well. For example, AAVE fell about 11 percent after the hackers used stolen stablecoins as collateral on the Aave lending platform. Still, prices stabilised quickly once Binance confirmed it would cover the losses, which suggests the market trusts that promise for now.

What About Binance Gift Cards

Naturally, many of our customers use Binance gift cards to add crypto to their accounts. Redeeming a gift card credits your Binance account directly, and Binance has not said that gift card redemption is affected by the incident.

Because balances on Binance are covered, crypto you add with a gift card is protected in the same way as the rest of your account. If you prefer to wait until withdrawals fully resume, you can simply keep the code safe and redeem it later. Check our guide on whether Binance gift cards expire to see how long you can wait. Our guide on whether a Binance gift card is safe explains more.

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