Binance Loses $6.3 Billion in Record Crypto Theft Traced to a Single Compromised Laptop

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency platform, says hackers stole $6.3 billion in a Thursday evening attack, likely the largest crypto theft in history. In its post mortem, the company traced the breach to a compromised laptop belonging to one of its engineers. That access let the attacker reach systems that enabled unauthorised withdrawals. Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals for 48 hours while it runs security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement. Co-founder Yi He said user funds are safe and that Binance will cover all losses.

Blockchain security firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis attribute the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group. The FBI has linked the group to the theft of $1.4 billion from Bybit last year and nearly $300 million from KelpDAO in April 2026. Chainalysis said funds from the Binance attack were seen mixing in wallets with money stolen from Bitget, which reported losing more than $387 million last month.

About $3 billion of the stolen funds has been frozen by other platforms, including Tether, Circle, Ripple, World Liberty Financial and Arbitrum. However, the attackers quickly sold stablecoins and took out loans against other stolen funds, leaving them with more than $2.4 billion in Ethereum and Bitcoin.