Key takeaways:
- The BBC reported that $6.3 billion in Binance digital assets was accessed; about $3 billion has been frozen.
- Binance says corporate holdings, not customer accounts or funds, were affected and that it will cover the losses.
- Investigators have not identified the hackers, though several analytics firms have linked the attack to North Korean operations.
Binance is trying to recover billions of dollars after hackers breached the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in what is believed to be a record theft. The company says about $3 billion has been frozen, but the attackers remain unidentified and much of the money is still out of reach.
The BBC reported that $6.3 billion in digital assets was accessed. Binance said more than $6 billion appeared to have moved through wallets connected to the breach, according to NBC News. Although funds have been frozen across several exchanges, it was not immediately clear whether they could be recovered.
The attack unfolded in about 20 minutes beginning around 4 p.m. ET Thursday, NBC News reported. Binance initially pointed to a compromised laptop, but said its investigation had uncovered additional points of breach. Co-CEO Richard Teng said the attack “was not carried out by one person.” He also described a “self-destruct mechanism that destroyed tooling and traces as they went,” making the breach harder to investigate, according to the BBC.
Binance says customer accounts and holdings do not appear to have been accessed. “Your assets are safe,” Teng said in a video statement Friday, adding, “we never use customer funds, so they are not impacted.” The company says its corporate holdings were affected and that it will cover the losses. NBC News reported that Binance had set aside $5 billion and was working with partners to buy another $1.34 billion in cryptocurrencies to cover the amount believed stolen.
Binance initially suspended deposits and withdrawals, the BBC reported. In a later update, it said “deposits remain unaffected.”
The U.S. Secret Service said it was working with private-sector partners, including cryptocurrency company Circle, to identify, freeze, trace and recover the funds. It said it was coordinating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and other law enforcement partners to identify those responsible. The investigation was in its early stages. Binance also said it was working with the FBI, according to the BBC.
Several blockchain analysis firms said the breach resembled previous operations linked to North Korean hackers. Chainalysis said it had “high confidence” in a North Korean link, the BBC reported. Teng said Binance had not identified the attackers. North Korea has denied involvement in cryptocurrency thefts, according to the BBC.
The scale exceeds the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit exchange in 2025, the BBC reported. TRM Labs estimated that $2.4 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum from the Binance attack will never be recovered, according to NBC News. Cryptocurrency firms Tether and Circle moved to freeze assets implicated in the breach.
Bitcoin fell more than 5% overnight to approximately $77,000 on Friday, while other affected cryptocurrencies fell as much as 9%, NBC News reported. The attack also comes after the Clarity Act, proposed U.S. legislation for crypto assets, failed in Congress amid a dispute over conflict-of-interest rules for elected officials, including President Donald Trump, according to NBC News.
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