On a Thursday in late October, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, halted all deposits and withdrawals after reporting that roughly $6.3bn had been taken in what appears to be the largest theft the digital asset world has recorded. The company, whose founder built it from China in 2017 into a holder of assets that few rivals can match, insists that customers' money is safe and that it will absorb the losses. Blockchain investigators have already pointed to North Korean state hackers, a reminder that in an age of borderless money, a single compromised laptop can become a matter of nat
Binance reports $6.3bn stolen in biggest crypto heist on record, with North Korea blamed
Any assets held at a centralised exchange are only as safe as the exchange itself.
Mark
Start with the number. Why does $6.3bn matter beyond being large?
Mimi
Because of the comparison. The old record was Bybit's $1.5bn in 2025, and all hacks that year totalled $2.87bn. This single incident is more than double that.
Mark
And the way in was an engineer's laptop?
Mimi
That's Binance's initial finding. Not a flaw in the blockchain itself, but a compromised device that let a hacker make unauthorised transactions.
Mark
Binance says user funds are safe and it will cover all losses. Does that settle it?
Luke
It's a promise, not a result. The reporting doesn't show how Binance would cover $6.3bn, and the withdrawal freeze is still in place.
Mark
What about North Korea being blamed?
Luke
Careful there. That's TRM's assessment, with "high confidence," not a finding from Binance or law enforcement. Binance says it is still working to confirm the criminals' identity.
Mimi
Still, Redbord's point is that if it is North Korea, the money feeds weapons programmes, which makes it more than a financial crime.
Mark
And the $6.3bn figure itself?
Luke
It comes from Binance, and it says an initial investigation. The post-mortem could change details. Also, about $3bn is frozen, but the report doesn't say how that relates to the stolen amount.
Mark
Bitcoin dropped about 5 percent. Is that the real damage?
Mimi
Foley's worry is confidence. If retail investors lose trust in big centralised exchanges, some may move to decentralised ones.
Luke
That's his expectation, though, not something that has happened yet.
Le Pouls
- Binance froze all deposits and withdrawals after an alleged $6.3bn breach, and the exchange's sudden silence has left millions wondering when their funds will move again.
- Investigators at TRM say with high confidence that North Korea's TraderTraitor unit, tied to the Lazarus Group, carried out the attack, turning a corporate incident into a global security alarm.
- Binance says a hacker used an engineer's compromised laptop to make unauthorised transactions, pledging to cover all losses while about $3bn has already been frozen.
- Bitcoin slid roughly 5 percent below $77,000, and analysts warn that confidence in centralised exchanges may now push traders toward decentralised alternatives.
On a Thursday in late October, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, halted all deposits and withdrawals after reporting that roughly $6.3bn had been taken in what appears to be the largest theft the digital asset world has recorded. The company, whose founder built it from China in 2017 into a holder of assets that few rivals can match, insists that customers' money is safe and that it will absorb the losses. Blockchain investigators have already pointed to North Korean state hackers, a reminder that in an age of borderless money, a single compromised laptop can become a matter of national security. The episode tests a foundational question of the digital economy: how much trust one institution can carry before the weight becomes a risk for everyone who depends on it.
On Thursday, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, stopped all deposits and withdrawals after what it called a "security incident." The company says about $6.3bn was stolen, which would make it the biggest crypto heist on record. Around $3bn has been frozen so far.
The early account is specific. Binance says a hacker gained access to an engineer's compromised laptop and used it to make unauthorised transactions. The company insists user funds are safe, will cover all losses, and is working with law enforcement to identify the criminals. A full technical post-mortem will follow once investigations conclude.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM has already named a suspect. It assesses with high confidence that North Korea's TraderTraitor unit, linked to the Lazarus Group, carried out the attack. Its policy head called the theft a watershed, warning that stolen funds from such scale can finance weapons programmes, making it a global security concern rather than merely a crypto crime.
The figure dwarfs the previous record, the $1.5bn Lazarus stole from Bybit in 2025. The Binance sum alone is more than double all crypto hacking losses reported across 2025.
Markets reacted quickly, with Bitcoin falling about 5 percent. Macquarie University's Sean Foley warned that a blow to a giant exchange could unsettle retail investors and that the episode may push traders toward decentralised platforms. As he put it, assets are only as safe as the exchange holding them, and the largest exchanges are the largest targets.
What happens next rests largely with Binance: when trading resumes, how much of the frozen money is recovered, and what the post-mortem reveals about how one laptop became the way in.
On Thursday, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, stopped all deposits and withdrawals after what it called a "security incident." The company said about $6.3bn in funds had been stolen, a figure that would make this the biggest crypto heist ever recorded. About $3bn has been frozen since the apparent hack.
Binance's early read of what happened is specific. An initial investigation suggests a hacker gained access to an engineer's compromised laptop and used it to make unauthorised transactions. The company has said it will cover all losses and that user funds are "safe." In a statement to Al Jazeera, it said its teams were working around the clock to resolve the issue safely and thoroughly, and that it was working with law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of the criminals and bring them to justice. A detailed technical post-mortem will be shared once investigations are complete.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder and largest shareholder, said earlier that the exchange appeared to have been hacked. Zhao founded the company in China in 2017. According to CoinMarketCap, it now has about $155bn in assets under management, more than any other exchange.
The question of who is behind it has already drawn an answer from outside the company. TRM, a blockchain intelligence firm, said in a report that it assessed with "high confidence" that the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, North Korea's hacking unit, which investigators have linked to the Lazarus Group. Ari Redbord, TRM's global head of policy, called the attack "unprecedented" and a "watershed." He told Al Jazeera: "When North Korea steals at this scale, the money funds weapons proliferation and other destabilising activity. That makes this a global security issue, not just a crypto theft."
The scale is hard to overstate against the record it replaces. The previous largest crypto theft came in 2025, when the state-backed Lazarus Group stole $1.5bn from the exchange Bybit. Across all of 2025, cybercriminals took $2.87bn in crypto assets in nearly 150 hacking incidents, according to TRM's 2026 Crypto Crime Report. The sum reported stolen from Binance in one incident is more than double that full-year total.
Markets reacted. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, fell about 5 percent after the news, dropping below $77,000. Sean Foley, a crypto markets expert at Macquarie University in Sydney, told Al Jazeera that Binance is one of the largest centralised exchanges, so a blow to confidence in it risks shocking many retail investors and could dampen crypto prices.
Foley also said the episode underlines the risks of centralised exchanges and could push more traders toward decentralised alternatives. "Any assets held at a centralised exchange are only as safe as the exchange itself," he said, "and the larger the exchange's holdings, the larger a target it becomes."
What comes next is largely in Binance's hands: when deposits and withdrawals resume, how much of the frozen $3bn is secured, and what the promised post-mortem shows about how a single engineer's laptop became the way in.
Citations marquantes
When North Korea steals at this scale, the money funds weapons proliferation and other destabilising activity. That makes this a global security issue, not just a crypto theft.— Ari Redbord, global head of policy, TRM
Any assets held at a centralised exchange are only as safe as the exchange itself, and the larger the exchange's holdings, the larger a target it becomes.— Sean Foley, Macquarie University
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