Binance uncovers additional breach points in historic $6.3 billion hack and coordinates with federal law enforcement
Binance revealed that its investigation into an estimated $6.3 billion hack uncovered multiple points of breach beyond an initial suspect laptop. The exchange has frozen roughly $3 billion in assets and pledged to cover all losses while working with the FBI and Secret Service.
Binance is investigating what has been described as the largest theft in crypto history after attackers drained an estimated $6.3 billion from the exchange. While preliminary findings pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, the company announced that subsequent inquiries revealed additional points of breach in what it characterized as a complex attack. CEO Richard Teng pushed back against simpler explanations, clarifying that the intrusion went beyond a single engineer's permissions and was not a one-click exploit.[3][6][7][10][13][16][18]
The exchange has frozen roughly $3 billion of the impacted assets on-chain in coordination with partners and stated there is no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. Outflows halted once withdrawals were suspended, and Binance expects withdrawal services to resume within approximately 45 hours, while deposits continue to operate normally. Teng assured users that their balances remain secure, pledging that Binance will cover every loss using company reserves and its Secure Asset Fund for Users.[1][6][7][11][14][20]
Binance is actively coordinating with the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service as the inquiry unfolds. Outside security specialists are also examining the mechanics of the exploit; Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan told Cointelegraph that while Ethereum's EIP-7702 upgrade did not cause the breach, it may have enabled attackers to bypass withdrawal safeguards and siphon funds in a single sweep. Additionally, on-chain researcher ZachXBT reported that stolen assets from the exploit were commingled at an address tied to a roughly $388 million hack of Bitget from September.[2][5][8][9][12][15][19]
Key facts
- Binance suffered a security breach with an estimated impact of $6.3 billion.
- A follow-up investigation uncovered additional points of breach beyond an initially suspected DevOps engineer's laptop.
- CEO Richard Teng stated the intrusion was not a single one-click exploit and extended beyond one engineer's permissions.
- Binance stated that roughly $3 billion in affected assets has been frozen and that no wallet private keys were leaked.
- The exchange pledged to cover all losses using its SAFU fund and company capital, with withdrawals paused and expected to resume within about 45 hours.
- Binance confirmed it is cooperating with the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service regarding the heist.
- Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan assessed that Ethereum's EIP-7702 did not cause the breach, but may have allowed attackers to bypass safeguards and drain funds in one sweep.
- On-chain researcher ZachXBT reported stolen funds were commingled at an address containing proceeds from a $388 million Bitget hack in September.
Sources · 18 sources
- ET
Eleanor Terrett@EleanorTerrettPost on X ·
🚨NEW: @binance co-CEO @_RichardTeng: “Bottom line: your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss.” Binance estimates the total impact at about $6.3 billion, with roughly $3 billion frozen onchain so far in coordination with its partners. The company says there’s no evidence that any wallet private keys were leaked.
Open source - CO
Cointelegraph@CointelegraphPost on X ·
🚨 INSIGHT: Ethereum’s EIP-7702 didn’t cause Binance’s $6.3B hack but may have helped attackers bypass security checks and drain funds in one sweep, @blockaid_ CEO Ido Ben-Natan tells Cointelegraph. https://t.co/yAuyfF09vs
Open source - TW
The Wolf Of All Streets@scottmelkerPost on X ·
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, was hacked for an estimated $6.3 billion. It's the biggest crypto theft ever, roughly four times Bybit's record. Full breakdown in today's Wolf Den: https://t.co/hqW8C2wD7C https://t.co/BakQl7NmvF
Open source - TE
Techmeme@TechmemePost on X ·
Binance reveals that a follow-up investigation has found "additional points of breach" beyond a possibly compromised laptop and says this was a "complex attack" (@binance) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)
Open source - SI
Solid Intel 📡@solidintel_xPost on X ·
INTEL: BINANCE IS WORKING WITH FBI AND US SECRET SERVICE AFTER $6.3 BILLION CRYPTO HEIST
Open source - SI
Solid Intel 📡@solidintel_xPost on X ·
INTEL: Binance discovers additional security breaches in $6.3B hack investigation Binance initially suspected a compromised laptop but says its investigation has now uncovered additional points of breach. - Binance will cover all user losses using SAFU and company funds. - Around $3B in affected assets has been frozen. - Withdrawals are expected to resume within 45 hours. Deposits remain unaffected.
Open source - CB
Crypto Banter@crypto_banterPost on X ·
🚨BINANCE FINDS ADDITIONAL BREACH POINTS BEYOND COMPROMISED LAPTOP! Binance’s follow-up investigation has uncovered additional points of breach beyond the initially reported compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop. The exchange describes it as a complex attack and says it is still gathering facts while coordinating with law enforcement. @binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and company funds. Withdrawals remain paused and are still expected to resume within about 45 hours. Deposits continue to operate normally. Outflows stopped when withdrawals were paused. Around $3B in impacted assets has been frozen so far.
Open source - CT
Coin TelegraphArticle ·
EIP-7702 didn’t cause Binance hack, but may have amplified losses Security experts said attackers could have drained Binance’s wallets without EIP-7702, but the Ethereum upgrade may have helped bypass withdrawal safeguards.
Open source - WG
Watcher.Guru@WatcherGuruPost on X ·
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Binance says it is working with the FBI and US Secret Service following $6.3 billion crypto hack.
Open source - TE
TechmemeArticle ·
Binance reveals that a follow-up investigation has found "additional points of breach" beyond a possibly compromised laptop and says this was a "complex attack" (@binance) @binance : Binance reveals that a follow-up investigation has found “additional points of breach” beyond a possibly compromised laptop and says this was a “complex attack” — Investigation update: Our initial investigation suggested that the security incident may have involved a compromised laptop, however our subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach. This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement...
Open source - SO
SolanaFloor@SolanaFloorPost on X ·
UPDATE: @Binance says further investigation uncovered additional breach points beyond the compromised DevOps laptop, suggesting a more complex attack. Around $3B has been frozen, and withdrawals are expected to resume in 45 hours. https://t.co/YH52PFsDTD
Open source - TN
Tree News@TreeNewsFeedPost on X ·
BINANCE IS WORKING WITH FBI AND US SECRET SERVICE AFTER $6.3 BILLION CRYPTO HEIST, SOURCE SAYS - RTRS
Open source - CO
Cointelegraph@CointelegraphPost on X ·
🚨 UPDATE: Binance’s Richard Teng clarifies the attack went beyond one engineer’s permissions and was not a “one-click” action. https://t.co/eBfmesTVQD
Open source - TV
The Verge@vergePost on X ·
$3 billion of stolen assets have been frozen so far, and Binance has promised to ‘cover all losses.’ https://t.co/Waa23mpXIi
Open source - *B
*Walter Bloomberg@DeItaonePost on X ·
BINANCE IS WORKING WITH FBI AND US SECRET SERVICE AFTER $6.3 BILLION CRYPTO HEIST, SOURCE SAYS
Open source - CO
CoinGape@CoinGapeMediaPost on X ·
🚨 UPDATE: Binance CEO @_RichardTeng clarifies that the attack involved more than a single engineer’s permissions and was not a simple “one-click” exploit. https://t.co/4iQZZEaJis
Open source - DE
DecryptArticle ·
Binance Finds 'Additional Points of Breach' in $6.3B Hack CEO Richard Teng said the attack was "not a single 'one-click' action," as Binance confirmed about $3 billion has been frozen.
Open source - CR
CryptoSlateArticle ·
Binance uncovers more breach points in $6 billion hack Binance said investigators uncovered additional breach points in the approximately $6 billion hack after initially suspecting a compromised employee laptop. The exchange has not disclosed what those additional breach points were. In an earlier Oct. 30 security update, the exchange said its preliminary investigation identified a potentially compromised DevOps engineer's laptop that may have allowed… Read the full story on CryptoSlate Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox
Open source - CR
CryptoSlate@CryptoSlatePost on X ·
Binance says it found more breach points in its roughly $6B hack after initially suspecting a compromised employee laptop. @zachxbt reports stolen funds commingled at one address with proceeds from September's roughly $388M Bitget hack. via @hardeyjumoh https://t.co/T4wkslNv0M
Open source - RM
Rekt Mkts@RektMktsPost on X ·
Daily Brief, 30 Oct: $6.3B Binance hack marks the largest ever in crypto Get the brief by email: https://t.co/vLaSSMqC6k Join Rekt Mkts Pro: https://t.co/tpKPk67feu Right so obviously you have seen all the headlines...pretty mental but I wouldn't even call this a black swan event...because this is the new normal...we are only going to see hacks + security threats increase from here on and it's a rude awakening for those who are not on top of defending themselves, as DPRK are clearly ahead of the game on this stuff. In any case, I personally think it's almost imperative that your investment portfolio contains some exposure to "the resistance", whether it be cyber-security stocks or ZEC in crypto. Once again, once the dust settles, I expect these to come out of the woodworks and outperform. More thoughts below on price action in the crypto section. MACRO A bit quieter on the macro front with this week's major events not really moving the needle in either direction. Treasuries are ending the week mostly unchanged, while oil is up ever so slightly. Call me a conspiracist but I still believe we could see some sort of positive headline over the weekend on the geopolitical front, and I also still feel like we are due to rally post the outcome of midterms next week. Today's activity will mostly be a wash for the market but I think the weekend price action on crypto perps for tradfi assets will be interesting. EQUITIES S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures are lower, with tech taking the bigger hit. Amazon is down around 7% in premarket after missing revenue and earnings expectations, despite AWS sales growing 39.3%. Trailing twelve-month free cash flow fell to negative $42.4bn. Cloud demand is growing quickly, but that hasn't been enough to get shareholders comfortable with the cost of meeting it. Intel is down around 25% in premarket after its Q4 outlook fell short, with PC weakness weighing on the forecast. Korean memory has had a rough session too: SK Hynix finished down 7.1% and Samsung 3%. Hynix held onto its earnings rally in yday's brief; today it's giving a sizeable chunk back. Strong company numbers haven't insulated the shares from the wider selling. All in all, it feels like a flurry of nasty earnings in big tech which has caused some mega moves in equities that have been popular this year. For the long-term equity bags, it's looking like interesting points to buy dips imo. CRYPTO BTC is down around 3.5% over 24H, with ETH and SOL each down 3.8%, while HYPE is up 4.6%. Binance estimates the impact at around $6.3bn, says roughly $3bn has been frozen and promises to cover all losses using SAFU and company funds. Withdrawals remain paused. Its initial investigation pointed to a possible compromised engineer's laptop, but it now says it has found additional points of breach. The full attack path is still being investigated, so the laptop explanation isn't the whole story. Honestly I am quite surprised by the price reaction - ie - we haven't seen things move down as much as I thought we would. Now, the main reason why is because it sounds like all funds will effectively be returned while Binance itself will absorb most of the hit. Secondly, the attack vector itself does not sound like it was specifically AI related, although the exact details are unclear. Either way, this isn't like 10/10 where tonnes of market participants experienced major losses; this is a situation where everyone should be made whole (or so they say)...but....it's obviously a massive hit to market confidence and has also led BTC to fall below its magical 80k support line. Unsurprisingly we're seeing coins like ZEC and XMR outperform; the ZECBTC ratio is up another 3% today to 0.016, marking a weekly increase of 8%. I expect this to continue, once again, I just don't see how the events of the last 24H are not bullish for ZEC...would you rather own something that is actively working on resistance or would you rather own something that is behind the curve and will be scrambling if they [eventually] get exploited? My gut says we see a repeat of last week where once the dust settles, ZEC surges out again. Let's see. Good luck and stay "SAFU".
Open source