EL7.AI
CryptoHigh Impact•2 November 2026•
2 min read

Binance hack costs about $6.3 billion, triggering race to contain stolen funds

Key Facts

1Binance estimated the impact of the hack at about $6.3 billion, while Elliptic estimated the stolen assets at $6.43 billion.
2Binance allocated more than $6.34 billion to cover the losses from its SAFU fund and company funds.
3About $242 million from the Binance proceeds was moved through the Tron network over two days.
4Bridging and swapping services moved about $140 million out of Tron, including about $48 million through Relay.

Hackers breached Binance hot wallets on October 29, and the platform estimated the impact of the incident at about $6.3 billion, compared with Elliptic’s estimate of $6.43 billion in stolen assets. Binance said the breach occurred at around 20:05 UTC. The FBI attributed the attack to North Korea and identified the specific cyber activity as “TraderTraitor.” Binance said it would cover the impact of the stolen funds using its SAFU fund and company funds. The platform allocated more than $6.34 billion for that purpose, according to Elliptic.

The scale of the theft was more than four times the amount stolen from Bybit in 2025, when losses reached $1.46 billion, according to Elliptic. The suspension of withdrawals halted outflows from Binance, according to the crypto-asset analytics firm. In the wake of the incident, Bitcoin fell 3.2% on the evening of October 29 to below $79,000, the Associated Press reported. The financial response was accompanied by efforts to disrupt the movement of assets between networks and services. The FBI’s warning focused on entities able to block transactions linked to the group’s addresses.

The FBI said the hackers are converting the stolen assets mainly into ether. It urged operators of THORNode, RPC nodes, spot exchanges, decentralized finance services and virtual asset service providers to block transactions linked to the group’s addresses. Transfers across networks show how quickly some of the funds moved after the breach. The hackers moved about $242 million from the Binance proceeds through the Tron network over two days, according to on-chain analyst SomaXBT, as reported by The Block. The bureau said decentralized finance and spot-swapping services could later be used to launder the assets.

In the cross-chain transfer route, Relay, THORChain, Chainflip and Symbiosis moved about $140 million in funds out of Tron by November 1, according to The Block. Relay handled the largest share, about $48 million. Binance said the first phase of withdrawal resumption would begin on November 1 between 06:00 and 09:00 UTC, with service returning gradually after security checks. According to Elliptic’s update on November 1, the platform began reopening withdrawals, starting with the Bitcoin network. Relevant parties are tracking the movement of funds as services are restored for users.