Binance is rebuilding its reserves and restoring withdrawals after attackers stole about $6. 3 billion in cryptocurrency from its hot wallets on Oct. 29, in what investigators describe as the largest crypto heist on record. The exchange said the breach began at about 20: 05 UTC, with most of the funds leaving across 10 blockchains within roughly 20 minutes. Bitcoin, ether, stablecoins and other tokens were among the assets transferred to wallets controlled by the attackers.
Binance’s initial investigation pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop and unauthorized access to a service container. A later account described a broader, months-long campaign: an engineer was approached through a fake recruitment process and given malware disguised as a coding assignment, while another employee had previously installed tampered developer software while searching for an artificial-intelligence tool. Attackers later used stolen credentials and an Ethereum feature known as EIP-7702 to obtain execution rights over a hot wallet and submit transfers outside the exchange’s normal approval process.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the theft to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group also known by several other names. The agency said the stolen assets were being converted mainly into ether and asked exchanges, blockchain operators and other virtual-asset businesses to block transactions linked to the operation. It published 628 associated cryptocurrency addresses, including 608 Ethereum addresses, 19 Bitcoin addresses and one Solana address.
By Nov. 1, it said roughly 95% of the affected amount had been replaced, with less-liquid tokens still being purchased. The exchange temporarily suspended withdrawals while it contained compromised infrastructure, revoked authorizations and checked its systems, then prepared a phased resumption. It said customer balances would not bear the loss, while a continuing investigation and planned technical review were intended to establish the full attack sequence and additional safeguards.