On October 30th, local time, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that due to a security breach, hackers stole cryptocurrencies worth approximately $6.3 billion. This case has become the largest cryptocurrency theft in history.
Binance suspended all coin withdrawal services on that day and stated that it has worked with partners to freeze the affected assets. Currently, approximately $3 billion in assets have been frozen.
Regarding the remaining $3.3 billion, Binance has not provided any updates. Binance's co-founder He Yi stated that the company will bear "all losses caused by hacker attacks" and expects to resume the coin withdrawal service on Sunday.
Blockchain intelligence agency TRM stated that this case is the largest cryptocurrency theft in recorded history. The stolen assets include mainstream cryptographic assets, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which are pegged to the US dollar.
After the news of Binance’s attack came out, the price of Bitcoin fell, breaking below $77,000 for the first time in over a month. The decline then narrowed, with the price trading around $77,500 at 6 a.m. in New York.
Bloomberg pointed out that this case represents a major blow to the cryptocurrency industry, which is on its way to maturity and is trying to expand into traditional finance. Previously, the largest cryptocurrency hacking incident in public records occurred in February 2025, when Bybit exchange was robbed of nearly $1.5 billion in tokens.
FTX, Mt. Gox and other former cryptocurrency giants were hit by multiple scandals involving theft and fraud, leading to a prolonged bear market. After Trump promised to create a clear regulatory era for the crypto industry, the sector has been hoping to overcome these negative historical events.
For those who have enjoyed a two-month price rebound during the crypto boom, the Binance incident cast a shadow over this current recovery phase.
Reports suggest that market sentiment has been already fragile after a series of encrypted security incidents. In recent months, Bitget has suffered losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the tampering of Ledger hardware wallets has also resulted in losses of several million dollars.
"Binance is a giant in the crypto industry. The market's trust in it has been shaken, and this means the entire industry's confidence has been affected. Especially since everyone is already wary of AI's increasing ability to launch cyberattacks," said Frederick Collins, CEO and co-founder of the crypto data platform Velo Data.
Binance's size far exceeds its peers. According to DefiLlama data, it holds approximately $135.2 billion in assets, while the second-ranked exchange, OKX, has $28.6 billion in assets.
According to TRM, hackers exploited a vulnerability in Binance's trading authorization mechanism. The attackers infiltrated the exchange system and used internal software to initiate transfers on 10 different blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Binance stated that investigations suggest that this incident may have originated from an compromised software engineer's laptop. Further investigation uncovered additional points of intrusion. Binance noted that there is currently no evidence of a private key being leaked.
"This is a complex attack, and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement agencies to handle it," Binance stated on X.
Binance's User Security Asset Fund (SAFU) was established in 2018 as an emergency insurance reserve to protect users in 'extreme situations'. According to Binance's 2024 report, the size of the SAFU fund is typically maintained at around $1 billion, and it fluctuates with market conditions.
Two major stablecoin issuers have taken action to freeze the assets involved in the case. Paul Ardino, CEO of Tether, said on X that more than $1.5 billion in stablecoins related to the suspected hack by Binance have been frozen. Jeremy Allaire, head of Circle, stated that $800 million of his company’s stablecoins have been frozen following the news of a suspected flaw at Binance.
On the same day that Binance had an incident, the prediction contract platform Polymarket reported that a third-party software provider was hacked, and its international exchange suspended trading for one hour. The blockchain analysis platform Bubblemaps posted on X, stating that more than 700 users of Polymarket had had their funds stolen, totalling $2.7 million. A spokesperson for the platform declined to comment on this data.
According to Yonhap News, South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, also suffered from a data breach this week, along with several other local financial institutions, affecting the information of hundreds of customers.
