Binance Suffers Potentially Record $6.3 Billion Hack Blamed on North Korea

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a $6.3 billion security breach on Thursday, October 30, 2026 — potentially the biggest crypto heist on record. The bulk of the theft unfolded in roughly 20 minutes, with attackers draining assets into hacker-controlled wallets in a method resembling the 2025 hack of crypto exchange Bybit, which the US Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed to Pyongyang.

US blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis both said they were highly confident North Korea was responsible, with TRM attributing the attack to North Korea's elite hacking unit. An initial investigation suggested the breach may have begun with a hacked laptop belonging to one of Binance's engineers, giving the attacker unauthorised access to its systems.

Binance halted withdrawals immediately and co-CEO Richard Teng pledged that the company's $1 billion SAFU reserve and its own funds would cover all losses. About $3 billion has been located so far: Tether froze nearly $1.57 billion, Circle blocked more than $800 million, Ripple froze roughly $200 million, and Trump-backed World Liberty Financial helped freeze around $27 million in stablecoins and about $2 million in World Liberty tokens. Binance expects to resume withdrawal services within 48 hours.

Crypto markets fell broadly on the news. Bitcoin dropped to a six-week low of $76,368, ether fell more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178, and BNB slid 5% to $709.70. Shares in Coinbase Global fell 4.8% and bitcoin buyer Strategy dropped nearly 6% in extended US trading.