Hackers steal $6.3 billion from Binance in biggest crypto heist on record

Hackers have stolen about $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in the biggest crypto theft on record. Blockchain analysts say most of the money was drained in about 20 minutes late on Thursday, as the attackers ordered Binance’s wallets to empty into wallets they controlled. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said about $6.36 billion was moved out of Binance wallets across 10 blockchains. Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals and warned the total “may continue to increase.” TRM Labs and Chainalysis both linked the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit tied to the Lazarus Group. The FBI blamed the same unit for the $1.5 billion theft from the exchange Bybit in February 2025. North Korea routinely denies involvement in such attacks, and Binance has not named a culprit. The exchange said the breach may have begun with a hacked engineer’s laptop and that it had since found other points of entry. Co-CEO Richard Teng said company funds would cover all customer losses. About $3 billion has been frozen so far, including more than $2.3 billion by stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle. Bitcoin fell to a six-week low of $76,368 on the news.