Binance says $6.3 billion stolen in record crypto hack

What happened

Binance said it was investigating a potential security issue after large amounts of cryptocurrency left its exchange wallets. It paused deposits and withdrawals while its teams conducted checks, worked with partners and law enforcement, and sought to freeze assets. Founder Changpeng Zhao said the incident “does look like a hack on Binance” and that user funds were safe; Binance said it would cover losses.^{⁠[2, 5, 18]}

Binance later cited an estimated $6.3 billion impact and said partners had frozen about $2.54 billion to $3 billion, a figure that could rise. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze funds tied to the incident; Circle’s CEO said more than $800 million equivalent was frozen and Tether’s CEO said more than $1.5 billion equivalent. Bitcoin fell about 3.2% on the day. Axios reported that an initial review pointed to a compromised engineer laptop and that some researchers linked the activity to a North Korean group; Binance had not confirmed the perpetrator or that funds were stolen.^{⁠[2, 5]}

Background

Binance is widely described as the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao founded it in 2017, pleaded guilty in 2023 to a money-laundering-related felony and stepped down as CEO; he was pardoned in 2025. Crypto platforms have been frequent theft targets; Axios noted a 2025 Bybit incident of about $1.5 billion attributed to North Korea-linked actors. A separate Polymarket incident was reported the same day.^{⁠[2, 5]}

How the coverage differs

Left-leaning outlets such as HuffPost, the New York Times and the Guardian led with a potential hack, a roughly $6.3 billion impact, paused withdrawals and frozen funds of more than $2.5 billion, while stressing Binance had not confirmed theft. Center outlets split: Axios called it possibly the biggest crypto hack in history (initially upwards of $5.7 billion, later $6.3 billion drained and about $3 billion frozen) and highlighted North Korea claims and an engineer laptop; ABC, NBC, CNBC, Forbes and The Hill focused on freezes of $1.5 billion to $3 billion and Binance’s “completely safe” message. Right-leaning coverage (Fox Business, New York Post, Washington Times, WSJ, IJR) used similar Zhao quotes and freeze totals; WSJ framed a possible record heist with analysts citing at least $1.7 billion (later at least $3 billion on the page) and market drops, while IJR stressed transfers were unconfirmed as theft and noted liquidations. Unrated outlets (Al Jazeera, BBC, TechCrunch, The Information) clustered around $2 billion-plus outflows and $2.5 billion frozen.^{⁠[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 15, 16, 18, 21, 24]}

What's still unclear

Whether funds were stolen, the final amount moved or lost versus frozen, who was responsible, and how much can be recovered remain unconfirmed by Binance. Reported figures for outflows and freezes vary across outlets and over time.^{⁠[2, 5, 18]}

Written by Grok from the full articles, at a reader's request. AI can get details wrong; check the sources.