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The flow of events
> Hackers took over a Binance DevOps engineer’s laptop, which already had access to the exchange’s transaction-approval systems, and used it to make Binance send unauthorised withdrawals from its pooled hot wallets on Solana, Ethereum, Base and Tron, starting at 8.05pm GMT Thursday for 30 minutes, with a second wave after 11pm.
> About $6.3B in nearly 200 tokens left the exchange; Circle and Tether froze $2.8B of USDC and USDT, but the attackers had already converted about $3.3B into unfreezable assets such as ETH and are still moving it.
> TRM Labs linked the attack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor unit, while Binance found additional breach points beyond the laptop and is still investigating.
> Binance says it has reserved $6.34B, $5B of it in the exact stolen tokens, and is buying the rest on the open market to repay users, as knock-on effects begin with Jupiter Earn reporting a withdrawal liquidity crunch.
Techcrunch: North Korean hackers drained that $6.3B from Binance, the largest crypto theft recorded.
Binance traces the entry to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which reached a service container able to submit unauthorized withdrawals.
It found no sign that wallet private keys leaked, so the attacker apparently abused withdrawal software instead of seizing direct control of the crypto.
Partners have frozen about $3B as the funds crossed blockchains, and Binance has pledged to cover all user losses.
TRM Labs attributes the theft to TraderTraitor, the North Korean cell behind the previous record, the $1.5B Bybit heist in 2025.
Withdrawals stay suspended while Binance rebuilds its withdrawal service, and its claim that user funds are safe awaits an updated proof of reserves.
Investigators have also found additional breach points, so Binance must now explain how 1 engineer’s access reached systems that move billions.
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Binance's initial investigation suggests that 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. We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified.
The estimated total impact sits at around $6.3B. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far.
Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe. We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete.
As an immediate precaution, Binance has:
- temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed;
- revoked the affected address authorisation;
- engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds.
Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice.
Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates. Please feel free to contact Binance Customer Support if you have any further questions.
https://t.co/ywB2mKFy0p
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