Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked, with the estimated total impact exceeding $6 billion. The incident sent Bitcoin and Ethereum to multi-week lows.
Details of the Security Breach
In a statement issued early on Friday, October 30, Binance said an initial investigation suggests the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. This may have "allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions."
The company added, "We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified."
Impact and Response
Binance said the estimated total impact sits at around $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion). The exchange reported that it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with about $3 billion frozen on-chain so far. It did not provide an update on the status of the remaining $3.3 billion.
The exchange said it will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company's funds. "User funds are safe," Binance said.
Market Reaction
Experts have said the incident could be the largest cryptocurrency hack ever. Other crypto giants hit lows following the news.
Bitcoin hit a six-week low and was last down 3% at $76,469.82, Reuters reports. Ethereum was down more than 3% at $2,185.83.
Company Background
Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. US President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025. Mr Zhao and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family's crypto enterprises.
Mr Zhao posted on X on Thursday that while he doesn't manage Binance anymore, "as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered." He was released from prison last year after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was the first person ever sentenced to prison time for violations of that law.
