{
  "id": 17275583,
  "title": "Hackers steal US$6.3 billion in crypto from Binance in the sector’s biggest-ever heist",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/hackers-steal-us-6-3-billion-in-crypto-from-binance-in-the-sectors",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-30T18:18:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MercoPress",
    "slug": "mercopress",
    "url": "https://en.mercopress.com/2026/10/30/hackers-steal-us-6.3-billion-in-crypto-from-binance-in-the-sector-s-biggest-ever-heist"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Hackers breached Binance, the world's largest digital asset exchange, stealing approximately US$6.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency in the sector's most significant heist to date. The US Secret Service, along with other agencies, is currently investigating the incident. Blockchain analysts believe a hacking group with ties to North Korea orchestrated the attack, although no official attribution has been confirmed. Most of the theft occurred within a 20-minute window on Thursday, starting at 20:05 GMT, targeted at Binance's transaction processing wallets. According to TRM Labs, the attackers had prepared for this operation 36 hours prior by funding an operator wallet and setting up the necessary signatures. They allegedly compromised Binance's signing infrastructure. Binance's co-CEO, Richard Teng, emphasized that the attack was not carried out by a single individual. The hackers utilized an Ethereum network mechanism called EIP-7702 to gain unauthorized access to a wallet and employed a \"self-destruct mechanism\" to cover their tracks. Binance assured customers that losses would be covered by its US$1 billion bitcoin reserve and internal resources. The company has initiated efforts to recover some of the stolen funds, with withdrawals currently suspended and expected to resume within 40 hours. A comprehensive proof-of-reserves report is scheduled for publication on Monday. The Secret Service, along with the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, is actively working to identify, freeze, trace, and recover the stolen assets. Major stablecoin issuers, including Tether, Circle, Ripple, and World Liberty Financial, have frozen half of the stolen assets. Estimates suggest that around US$2.4 billion in bitcoin and ether remain inaccessible, as no entity can block such transactions. TRM Labs and Chainalysis assert they have a high level of confidence that the perpetrator is the North Korean-linked group known as TraderTraitor, previously responsible for the largest theft in the crypto sector, the $1.5 billion heist from the Bybit exchange in 2025. Bitcoin prices dropped by approximately 4% following the news of the attack.",
  "summary": "Hackers stole about US$6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange, in the biggest theft in the sector’s history, which the US Secret Service is investigating with other agencies. Blockchain analytics firms point to a hacking group linked to North Korea, though there has been no official attribution.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "IGN",
        "title": "Crypto Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion From Binance in 'Largest Bank Heist in Human History'",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/crypto-hackers-steal-6-3-billion-from-binance-in-largest-bank-heist",
        "published": "2026-10-30T18:34:07.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Futurism",
        "title": "It Took Hackers Just 20 Minutes to Steal $6.3 Billion in Crypto from a Single Platform",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/it-took-hackers-just-20-minutes-to-steal-6-3-billion-in-crypto-from-a",
        "published": "2026-10-30T19:14:25.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}