Crypto giant Binance hit by ‘largest hack in history’

The world's largest cryptocurrency platform, Binance, has suffered one of the most severe hacks in history, reportedly affecting several billion dollars of digital assets and prompting the freezing of customer accounts. According to Binance, a staggering $6.3bn (£4.7bn) was impacted by the attack, with half of the funds already frozen but still under their control. The remaining half remains in the hands of the hackers, as reported by the crypto giant, which has vowed to "cover all losses".

The incident is believed to have been triggered by a compromised engineer's laptop, granting the hacker access to the group's systems to make withdrawals. While its involvement has not been confirmed, analysts have suggested that the hack may have been carried out by a North Korean unit. A TRM Labs report noted that several elements of the attack show similarities to a 2025 hack on the Bybit exchange, which is believed to be the next-largest in history and was also attributed to North Korea's Trader Traitor.

Binance's head of policy, Ari Redbord, stated that the hack was a "watershed moment" on a scale the industry had not yet seen. The company, founded by Changpeng Zhao, which pleaded guilty to money laundering before being pardoned by President Trump, has over 335 million users registered globally and controls approximately $165 billion in assets.

Binance assured users that their funds are "completely safe" and stated that all deposits and withdrawals have been temporarily suspended while their security teams work to secure the wallet infrastructure and trace the affected assets, with the support of law enforcement and industry partners.

The cryptocurrency market reacted negatively to the news, with major cryptocurrencies falling immediately through Asia's trading session. Bitcoin experienced a drop of over three percent, reaching a six-week low, while shares in Binance rival Coinbase dropped by 4.8 percent, and Strategy, a "crypto treasury" that takes debt-fuelled bets on bitcoin, fell by 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Tim Sun, a senior researcher at Hashkey Group based in Hong Kong, noted that the incident may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralized exchanges, as well as counterparty, solvency, and liquidity risks.