Key Highlights

  • Binance said late on October 29, 2026 that about USD 6.3 billion was affected, while blockchain firm TRM Labs put the theft at USD 6.36 billion across ten blockchains, the largest on record.
  • TRM Labs linked the theft with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit, and Chainalysis said it was likely the same group; Binance has said only that it is working with law enforcement.
  • Withdrawals reopened in phases from 06:00 UTC on November 1, beginning with 15 tokens including Ether, Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, and Binance reported net outflows of USD 3.6 billion.
  • Bitcoin (BTC) traded near USD 78,000 on November 1, roughly 5 percent below its pre-theft level and about 39 percent under its record of USD 128,198 set on October 6, 2025.

Timeline of the Attack

The attack started after 4:00 p.m. ET on October 29 and lasted about 20 minutes, emptying wallets across ten blockchains. Reconstructions put Ethereum at about USD 3.8 billion, 18,270 Bitcoin (BTC) at about USD 1.5 billion, TRON at USD 628 million, XRP at USD 296 million and Solana at USD 96 million. Additional attacks struck Avalanche and Polygon later that evening, and one reconstruction suggests the attackers prepared at least 36 hours in advance. Binance paused trading and suspended withdrawals but said deposits were unaffected. The prior record was the USD 1.5 billion Bybit theft in February 2025, so this one is about four times larger, simple arithmetic on the two figures.

Asset Freezes, Reserves and the Outflow Number

Stablecoin issuers can blacklist addresses, so Tether and Circle froze wallets within minutes, and Binance said about USD 3 billion was frozen with partners. Assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) cannot be frozen that way. Binance said it replaced about 95 percent of the stolen crypto using treasury, emergency and insurance funds, and that losses will not be passed on to users. Binance held about USD 171 billion of assets as of October 28, so a USD 6.3 billion loss equals roughly 3.7 percent of that figure, simple arithmetic on two published numbers. The USD 3.6 billion net outflow has no stated window or formula, and Co-CEO Yi He said some transfers went between Binance's own wallets, so it should not be read as customers leaving.

Risks and Signals to Monitor

Binance first pointed to a compromised engineer's laptop, then found further points of breach, and said it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak. It plans to publish more technical detail when its probe concludes. The US Secret Service and FBI are tracking the funds. Market effects were visible. Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below USD 77,000 on October 30. Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) fell 10.6 percent that day. Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) fell 7.8 percent. Most major cryptocurrencies moved less than 1 percent on November 1, so the shock looks contained so far. Risks include laundering of stolen assets, the unresolved shortfall and regulatory scrutiny of exchange custody.

Where Things Stand

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by assets, lost about USD 6.3 billion on October 29, 2026, and the USD 3.6 billion figure refers to reported net outflows after withdrawals reopened. The weight of evidence points to a serious security failure that freezes and a large reserve cushion helped contain, although attribution remains an outside finding. For Bitcoin (BTC), the event added pressure to an already weak market, and the next catalyst is Binance's technical report.