Binance reports $6.3 billion theft, halts withdrawals and covers losses with internal funds
Hackers stole roughly $6.3 billion from Binance, prompting the exchange to suspend withdrawals and allocate company reserves to compensate for the loss while investigators pursue the perpetrators.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed that hackers withdrew about US$6.3 billion in a 20-minute attack on Thursday. The exchange halted all withdrawals and said it would use internal reserves to cover the losses, setting aside approximately US$6.34 billion for that purpose. Binance added that about US$3 billion of the stolen assets have been located and frozen, while the status of the remaining funds remains unclear.
The company is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Binance said its security team is tracing the attack path, which appears to have begun with a compromised laptop belonging to a Binance engineer.
“This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it,” Binance posted on X.
“Your money is safe and we’re covering every loss,” co-CEO Richard Teng wrote on X.
Blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs, Chainalysis and Elliptic attributed the theft to North Korea’s elite hacking unit, noting similarities to a 2025 heist at Bybit that U.S. authorities also linked to the regime. Elliptic described the incident as “almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind.”
Stablecoin issuers responded by freezing assets linked to the breach. Tether froze nearly US$1.57 billion, Circle froze more than US$800 million, and World Liberty Financial, a firm backed by former U.S. president Donald J. Trump, froze US$27 million in stablecoins and about US$2 million in its own tokens. Ripple also froze roughly US$200 million.
Crypto markets reacted with price declines; Bitcoin fell to a six-week low of US$76,368 and ether dropped to a two-month low of US$2,178. Analysts warned the breach could dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralized platforms.
Binance, which reported US$162.8 billion in assets under custody in its 2025 annual report, said it has a US$1 billion Bitcoin reserve fund intended to protect customer assets in the event of security breaches. Founder Changpeng Zhao noted that the company also holds SpaceX shares valued at more than US$1 billion.