Largest cryptocurrency theft: Binance loses about $6.3 billion in a hacker attack

What happened

On October 29, Binance — the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange — suffered a hacker attack in its security system, as a result of which the exchange lost about $6.3 billion. Analysts suggest this may be the largest cryptocurrency theft in history. Kun.uz reported this in its daily digest.

How the hackers acted and what the exchange is doing

According to preliminary findings of the exchange's own investigation, the attack may have started with the hacked laptop of one of the company's engineers: through it, the hacker gained access to one of the systems and withdrew funds without authorization. Binance said that, together with partners, it froze the stolen assets and has so far located $3 billion of the stolen funds; the fate of the remaining $3.3 billion has not yet been disclosed. The exchange's statement reads: 'User funds are safe. As a precautionary measure, all deposit and withdrawal operations have been temporarily suspended.' The company's co-founder stated that Binance will compensate for all damage caused by the hackers.

Market reaction and context

After the incident, the cryptocurrency market reacted with a decline: on the morning of October 30, during Asian trading, bitcoin fell by more than 3% — to $76.3 thousand, its lowest level in six weeks. Ethereum also lost more than 3%. For the exchange's users — Binance has 335 million registered accounts worldwide — the suspension of deposits and withdrawals and the promise of compensation are of primary practical importance. According to available data, in 2025 hackers stole a total of about $2.9 billion in cryptocurrency in roughly 150 different attacks — the amount stolen from Binance in a single incident exceeds this annual figure. It should be noted that these figures come from a Kun.uz publication; no independent verification of the amount of damage is available in accessible materials.