Cryptocurrency prices worldwide have tumbled following a major security breach at Binance, the world's largest exchange platform, with an estimated $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion) affected in the digital robbery.
In a statement released during the early hours of Friday, October 30, Binance revealed that preliminary findings indicate the security breach may have resulted from a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, through which an attacker could have accessed a service container and submitted unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
Largest Theft in History?
The breach could represent the largest cryptocurrency theft in history and triggered a sharp decline in Bitcoin's value.
Binance stated: "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."
Binance confirmed it has collaborated with blockchain partners to freeze compromised assets. Approximately $3 billion has been secured on-chain thus far, though the whereabouts of the outstanding $3.3 billion remains unclear.
Market Reaction
The platform confirmed it will compensate all losses through the SAFU fund and corporate reserves. "User funds are safe," Binance stated.
The cryptocurrency sector reacted swiftly to the breach, with Bitcoin dropping to a six-week low. It was most recently trading 3% lower at $76,469.82, according to Reuters. Ethereum fell by more than 3% to $2,185.83.
Company History
The cryptocurrency platform was established in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao. In 2023, he admitted guilt to a felony charge connected to his failure to prevent money laundering on the exchange and resigned as chief executive.
Mr Zhao stated in a message on X on Thursday that while he no longer runs Binance, "as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered."
He received a pardon from US President Donald Trump in 2025. Mr Zhao and Binance have been significant backers of several of the Trump family's cryptocurrency ventures. He was freed from custody last year following his sentence for breaching the Bank Secrecy Act and became the first person ever imprisoned for violations of that legislation, which mandates American financial institutions to identify their customers, oversee transactions and submit reports of suspicious conduct.
Prosecutors stated nobody had ever contravened the regulations to the degree Mr Zhao did.
