Binance Hack: Everything You Need to Know About the Biggest Crypto Heist in History
Attackers stole roughly $6.4 billion from Binance on Thursday in the largest crypto hack ever, more than four times the previous record.
The theft began at about 4:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, after U.S. markets had closed, when attackers moved funds out of Binance hot wallets across roughly 10 blockchains, most of it within about 20 minutes. Blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs put the total at around $6.4 billion, more than four times the previous record, February 2025's $1.5 billion Bybit heist.
Crucially, the attack targeted Binance's own infrastructure, not the blockchains themselves. Binance initially traced the breach to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which may have let the attacker reach a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawals.
Attack method
On Ethereum, the attacker leaned on EIP-7702, a feature introduced in 2025 that lets ordinary wallets temporarily run smart-contract code. Using 50 pre-signed authorizations, the attacker turned a Binance hot wallet into a 'sweeper' contract and drained its assets, according to TRM Labs.
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Attribution
TRM Labs and Chainalysis both attributed the hack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-linked group also blamed for the Bybit heist. After that attack, the group converted roughly 84% of the stolen Ethereum into Bitcoin via the cross-chain network Thorchain.
Binance response
Teng said Binance will cover every dollar of the losses with company funds and its Secure Asset Fund for Users, an emergency reserve. The exchange has set aside more than $6.34 billion, about $5 billion of it already held in the exact tokens stolen, including BTC, ETH, BNB, USDC, and USDT.
It hurts, but we survive.
Frozen assets
Stablecoin issuers moved fast following the initial reports. Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in assets, while Circle froze around $823 million tied to the attack. In all, roughly $3 billion has been frozen or located, but the attacker still controls more than 420,000 ETH and 18,270 BTC, worth over $3 billion that no issuer can freeze.
Investigation
Binance is cooperating with law enforcement worldwide, including the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service. The FBI confirmed it was aware of the incident and coordinating with partners; the Secret Service declined to comment.
Markets reacted relatively calmly, with Bitcoin falling to about $76,400 on Friday, down roughly 4%. Analysts credit a bigger, more mature market, now worth around $2.6 trillion, with spot Bitcoin ETFs holding roughly 1.3 million BTC in hands that don't panic-sell.
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