Binance says crypto worth $6.3bn impacted by hack
BBC News
Image source: VCG via Getty Images
Image caption: Binance is the world's biggest cryptocurrency trading platform
By Osmond Chia
Business reporter
Published: 30 October 2026, 00:37 GMT
Updated: 6 minutes ago
Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that a "security incident" on its platform has impacted approximately $6.3bn (£4.7bn) of assets.
The world's biggest crypto exchange stated that roughly half of those assets have been frozen with the assistance of other platforms, assuring that it will "cover all losses".
Early investigations suggest the hack may have involved an engineer's laptop compromised by an attacker, enabling unauthorized withdrawals.
The incident is being described as the "largest hack in history", surpassing a 2025 record-setting $1.5bn hack on the Bybit exchange linked to North Korea.
While Binance.com is affected, the smaller crypto platform Binance.US, offering trading services for American residents, is not involved in the issue.
"It does look like a hack," stated Binance's former boss Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ), who no longer manages the firm but remains a significant shareholder.
Binance reported that the frozen asset amount may continue to rise during ongoing investigations, promising to release a full report once the investigation is complete and urging users to rely solely on its official channels for updates.
In a series of posts, Yi He, Binance's co-chief executive, expressed gratitude to various cryptocurrency issuers for freezing their assets.
"Safety first: withdrawals are currently disabled until the environment is confirmed to be secure," she stated.
Bitcoin experienced a drop of over 4% following the alerts, with the prices of other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana also plummeting significantly.
Finance and AI investigation firm TRM Labs has attributed the Binance incident to a North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor, citing high confidence in their judgment. They further emphasized that the attack resembles earlier North Korea-linked incidents, including the 2025 Bybit hack.
The lab's chief policy officer Ari Redbord told the BBC that the Binance hack represents a "watershed moment" unlike anything the industry has encountered. He added that the attacker still possesses a substantial amount of stolen assets, making asset tracing and recovery efforts far from concluded.
Binance, without directly confirming potential links to North Korea, stated: "We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice."
Two other major crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, reported freezing a combined total of approximately $2.4bn of assets in response to the Binance hack.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire expressed close tracking of the reports regarding Binance's potential exploit, revealing that his company has frozen over $800m in assets linked to the incident.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed their freeze of assets related to the incident.