Blockaid secures $40M in funding commitments after $6.3B Binance hack
Blockaid secured $40 million in funding commitments days after its AI detected a $6.3 billion Binance hack in under two minutes.
The October 29 breach marked the largest theft in Binance's history, with total losses estimated at $6.3 billion. The exchange reported approximately $3 billion in assets frozen following the attack, which was traced to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer.
Blockaid's AI models detected anomalous outflows from Binance's hot wallets—internet-connected accounts exchanges use for daily withdrawals—in less than two minutes. Within 11 minutes, the firm had identified malicious EIP-7702 delegations, which the exploiters used to extract funds from the exchange.
Attack methodology
Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan characterized the breach as an attack on signing infrastructure rather than simple private key theft. He compared it to the February 2025 Bybit incident, suggesting both breaches targeted the machinery surrounding keys rather than the keys themselves.
The breach was attributed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. That device reportedly opened the door to unauthorized withdrawals from the exchange.
Industry implications
For cryptocurrency exchanges, the attack highlights vulnerabilities beyond hardware wallets and key ceremonies. Laptops, approval flows, and delegation permissions surrounding cryptographic keys have become visible targets, as evidenced by how one compromised device initiated this breach.
Crypto users will be watching closely to see how much of the frozen $3 billion ultimately returns to its rightful owners. The incident may prompt other exchanges to publicly audit their signing infrastructure and EIP-7702 exposure in the wake of this sophisticated attack.
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