Binance Estimates Hack’s Impact at $6.3 Billion and Suspends Withdrawals
Key Facts
Binance estimated the incident’s total impact at about $6.3 billion in an update published on October 30, 2026, while TRM’s analysis counted about $6.36 billion in outflows from the platform’s wallets. TRM said the transfers were tracked across 10 blockchains on October 29, with most occurring over about 20 minutes. Binance kept withdrawals suspended during security checks and said deposits were unaffected. The platform had begun restoring assets to users, according to the Associated Press. Binance pledged to cover all losses from its SAFU fund and company funds, saying users’ funds were safe.
Binance said its initial investigation indicated a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer may have been involved. The company said this allowed the attacker to access a service container and send unauthorized withdrawal transactions. It added that it had found no evidence that private wallet keys had been leaked. But a later investigation uncovered additional points of compromise after the initial assessment, Binance said. The platform did not identify the attackers, and the mechanism of the breach remains under investigation.
Binance said it had worked with blockchain partners to freeze about $3 billion of the affected assets on-chain as of its October 30 update. That figure refers to assets the company said it had frozen, while it estimated the incident’s total impact at about $6.3 billion. Binance began restoring assets to users on Friday, the Associated Press reported. The platform said deposits were unaffected, but withdrawals remained suspended. It expected them to resume within a day or two of the October 30 update.
TRM said it believed the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, which it described as a North Korean hacking unit. The scale of the estimated transfers made it the largest cryptocurrency hack in the company’s records, the Associated Press quoted TRM as saying. The attribution remains TRM’s assessment, as Binance has not identified the attackers. A comparison with an earlier incident in the sector puts the scale of the event in broader context: losses from the Bybit platform hack reached about $1.5 billion in February 2025. The FBI attributed that hack to North Korea and the TraderTraitor group, the Associated Press reported.
The incident also affected cryptocurrency markets and related stocks. On Thursday evening, October 29, Bitcoin fell 3.2% to below $79,000, according to the Associated Press. In Friday’s session, it approached $77,000 after topping $86,000 earlier in the month. Coinbase shares fell 12.9%, despite the company reporting quarterly results that beat analysts’ expectations. Strategy shares also fell about 6% in the same session.
Binance said it would publish an updated proof of reserves after completing its response to the incident. It also pledged to publish a detailed technical review after the investigation and full verification of the facts were complete. The company did not set a timeline in its statement. In the meantime, it said withdrawals were expected to resume within a day or two of the October 30 update. Determining the breach’s path and the attackers’ identities remains dependent on the investigation, which Binance said had uncovered additional points of compromise.