On the evening of October 29, 2026, attackers drained about $6.3 billion in crypto from the hot wallets of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. That is the exchange's own estimate. About $3 billion has been frozen, and customer withdrawals are on hold.
If you have money on Binance, here is what matters now: the exchange says it will cover all losses from its SAFU insurance fund and company money, and that user funds are safe. You cannot withdraw them right now. Binance co-founder Yi He said on the morning of October 30 that withdrawals should resume within 48 hours.
What we know as of October 30
- The loss. In its official statement, Binance puts it at about $6.3 billion. Chainalysis (a firm that tracks money on blockchains) estimates about $5.9 billion, according to CoinDesk. Early reports of $2 billion counted only some of the wallets.
- About $3 billion frozen. Tether and Circle, which issue dollar stablecoins (crypto pegged to the US dollar), blocked more than 1.57 billion USDT and more than $800 million in USDC at the attacker's addresses.
- The cause. Binance's early finding is that the attacker hacked a DevOps engineer's laptop (the person who keeps servers running), reached an internal system through it and sent withdrawal orders. Binance says it has found no sign that wallet private keys leaked. A detailed technical report is promised later.
- The suspects. ZachXBT, TRM Labs and Chainalysis CEO Jony Levin link the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group and its TraderTraitor unit, CoinDesk reports. No official attribution yet.
- Deposits. Reports conflict: Binance's statement says both deposits and withdrawals are paused, while Yi He, per crypto.news, wrote that deposits are working.
How big is this
It is the largest theft in crypto history. Three comparisons put it in perspective:
