Crypto giant Binance says $6.3bn assets stolen in 'largest hack in history'

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - NEW YORK — Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that about $6.3 billion of digital assets were stolen in a “security incident” that has been described as the largest crypto heist in history.

The world’s largest crypto exchange said it had suspended all deposits and withdrawals and that about $3 billion in funds had been frozen with the help of other platforms following the apparent hack.

Binance said an initial investigation suggested that a hacker had been able to make unauthorized transactions after gaining access to an engineer’s compromised laptop.

The company said it would cover all losses, adding that user funds were “safe”.

“Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly,” Binance said in a statement.

AI-powered investigations company TRM Labs has attributed the incident, which eclipses a record-setting $1.5 billion hack on the Bybit exchange in 2025, to a North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor.

"We make this judgment with high confidence," TRM said in a report, adding that several elements of the attack resemble earlier North Korean-linked incidents, including the Bybit hack.

The lab's chief policy officer Ari Redbord told the BBC the Binance hack is a "watershed moment" that is unlike anything the industry has seen.

The attacker still holds an enormous sum of stolen assets, meaning efforts to trace and recover the funds are far from over, Redbord added.

Binance did not directly respond to queries about the incident's potential links to North Korea but said: "We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice."

The incident concerns Binance.com, while much smaller crypto platform Binance.US, which provides trading services specifically for US residents, said its platform is not affected by the issue.

In a series of posts, Yi He, Binance's co-chief executive, thanked various cryptocurrency issuers for freezing the assets.

"Safety first: withdrawals are currently disabled until the environment is confirmed to be secure," she said.

Two other major crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, said they have frozen a total of about $2.4bn of assets in response to the potential Binance hack.

Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said his firm is "closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance" and that his company has frozen more than $800m in assets linked to the incident.

Circle is the issuer and co-creator of the USDC, one of the world's largest US dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm has frozen around $1.6bn "related to a potential Binance exchange hack."

"Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority," said Ardoino, whose company issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT.

World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to US President Donald Trump and his family, said it has worked with its partners to freeze stolen funds.

Crypto exchange Coinbase said it was unaffected by the incident and was monitoring the situation.

Several crypto industry observers had flagged concerns about a potential hack on Binance hours before the exchange confirmed the security issue.

Binance, which was founded in China in 2017, allows users to trade digital assets and is estimated to have more than 300 million registered users worldwide.

Bitcoin dropped by more than 4% following the alerts. The price of other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.