Biggest Crypto Hack Ever: $6.4 Billion Stolen From Binance

Hackers stole a record $6.4 billion from Binance, the world's top crypto exchange. The company promises to cover every dollar lost.

The largest theft in cryptocurrency history just happened. On Thursday, hackers stole roughly $6.4 billion from Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange (a platform where people buy and sell digital currencies). That's more than four times bigger than the previous record.

How it happened

The attack started after U.S. markets closed. In about 20 minutes, the thieves drained money from Binance's "hot wallets" (online storage accounts used for quick transactions) across roughly 10 different blockchains (the digital networks that record crypto transactions).

Importantly, the hackers did not break the blockchains themselves. Instead, they targeted Binance's own systems — reportedly starting with a compromised laptop belonging to one of the company's engineers.

Who did it?

Two major investigation firms blamed TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea. The same group was behind a smaller $1.5 billion heist earlier in 2025.

The key numbers:

$6.4 billion stolen total
$6.34 billion set aside by Binance to repay losses
~$3 billion already frozen or recovered
~$3.3 billion still controlled by the hacker

What Binance is doing

Binance CEO Richard Teng promised the company will cover every dollar lost using company funds and an emergency reserve. He stressed that customer money was never touched. Binance paused withdrawals to fix its systems but aims to restore them by Sunday.

The role of stablecoins

Much of the frozen money involved stablecoins (digital coins designed to always equal $1, run by private companies). Because these companies control them, they can freeze suspicious funds:

Tether (USDT) froze over $1.5 billion
Circle (USDC) froze around $823 million

The catch: regular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum can't be frozen this way, so the hacker still controls over $3 billion in those coins.

The bottom line: This record-breaking hack exposed weaknesses in exchange security — but thanks to Binance's large reserves, ordinary customers shouldn't lose their money. The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are now investigating.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://decrypt.co/382306/binance-hack-everything-you-need-to-know