Binance Hacked for $6.3 Billion, Deposits and Withdrawals Suspended in the Biggest Crypto Breach Ever
The largest crypto exchange in the world has confirmed the largest crypto hack in history.
Binance has confirmed it was hacked for an estimated $6.3 billion, and the exchange has temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals.
"The estimated total impact sits at around $6.3B," Binance said in a statement. "We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far."
The exchange said user funds remain safe, and that the suspension is a precaution while its security teams conduct checks, secure wallet infrastructure, and trace the stolen assets with law enforcement and industry partners.
Co-founder Yi He said the exchange expects to begin resuming withdrawal services within the next 48 hours.
Four Times the Size of the Bybit Hack
The scale of the breach dwarfs anything the industry has seen before.
The previous record was the $1.5 billion hack of Bybit in February 2025, then the largest crypto theft ever recorded. The Binance breach is more than four times that size.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated that at least $5.9 billion was stolen across several networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Ripple.
TRM Labs estimated roughly $6.36 billion was transferred out of Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, with most of the movement occurring within about 20 minutes.
Both firms pointed to North Korea. Chainalysis said it has a high degree of confidence that the DPRK is responsible, after observing funds from last month's Bitget exploit commingling with the stolen Binance funds, while TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group.
A Compromised Laptop, Not a Key Leak
Binance's initial investigation suggests the attackers did not break the exchange's cryptography. They broke its people and its processes.
According to the exchange, the 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.
Initial reports also indicate the attackers hijacked a Binance hot wallet using Ethereum's EIP-7702 mechanism, redirecting wallet transactions to a malicious smart contract before spreading the funds across multiple wallets.
Binance said it has found no evidence that the private keys securing its wallets were exposed, and it has revoked the affected address authorization.
$3 Billion Frozen, and a Promise to Cover Losses
The freeze effort moved fast. Binance said about $3 billion of the affected assets have been frozen on-chain with the help of blockchain partners.
Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT tied to the incident, and Circle reportedly froze about $823 million in USDC.
Former chief executive Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, said the stolen funds exceeded $1 billion and indicated from the start that Binance would stand behind its users.
The exchange has since made that explicit: "Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company's funds. User funds are safe."
Binance also committed to publishing a technical report and an updated proof of reserves once remediation is complete.
Bitcoin and Ether Sold Off Hard
Crypto markets took the news badly.
Bitcoin fell below $77,000, trading as low as about $76,328 after spending most of Thursday above $80,000. Ether fell below $2,200.
The sell-off wiped out about $1.52 billion in leveraged positions across crypto over the past day, with roughly $1.36 billion of that coming after the Binance disclosure, according to CoinGlass data.
Contagion controls spread to decentralized finance as well, with lending platform Aave restricting deposits and borrowing in several markets after the attacker used stolen stablecoins as collateral.
What It Means for the Options Market
A hack of this size at the world's largest exchange is a volatility event for every listed crypto proxy, and options traders will be pricing headline risk in both directions until withdrawals resume and the final loss figure is known.
Watch COIN as the largest listed US exchange and the sector's sentiment bellwether, MSTR as the leveraged Bitcoin proxy that amplifies every sharp BTC move, and IBIT for spot Bitcoin ETF flow as investors decide whether the dip is a buying opportunity or the start of a deeper de-risking.
If Binance makes good on its 48-hour timeline and its promise to cover all losses, the market impact may fade quickly. If the freeze tally stalls or the North Korea attribution hardens into a sanctions story, expect crypto-linked names to stay under pressure.
Sign up for Unusual Whales to track options flow, market tide, and dark pool activity in real time.