Binance Pledges Full Compensation After Record $6.3 Billion Crypto Cyberheist
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is scrambling to recover from an unprecedented cyberattack after hackers stole $6.3bn in digital assets late on Thursday. The raid stands as the largest heist in history, eclipsing previous benchmarks including a $1.5bn crypto raid last year and the $1bn taken from Iraq’s central bank by Saddam Hussein in 2003. “This is almost certainly the largest theft of any kind in history,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist at crypto consultancy Elliptic. Analysts said the stolen funds included $3.8bn in Ethereum, marking the heaviest hit among affected cryptocurrencies. Binance leadership moved quickly to calm panic across the sector. Richard Teng, co-chief executive of Binance, stated: “Bottom line – your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss.” Teng confirmed the firm has allocated $6.34bn to fully compensate affected clients. Company founder Changpeng Zhao, who was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2025 following a four-month prison sentence in 2024 for money laundering violations, also weighed in on X, declaring user funds were safe while acknowledging the incident looked like a hack.
Suspected North Korean Involvement and Breach Details
Security researchers, including Elliptic, Chainalysis, and crypto analytics firm TRM, pointed directly at North Korea. TRM attributed the breach with high confidence to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean state-backed hacking squad. The regime has looted over $6.5bn in crypto assets in recent years, including more than $1bn so far in 2026 alone. Binance reported that the cyberattack began after a company engineer’s laptop was compromised, giving the intruder access to internal systems to initiate unauthorized withdrawals. The exchange later clarified that investigators discovered “additional points of breach” in what developed into a highly complex operation. A multi-company effort has already located about $3bn of the stolen funds. Tether announced it froze nearly $1.57bn tied to the attack, while Circle froze more than $800m. World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture associated with Trump and his family, confirmed working alongside custodian BitGo to lock down stolen assets.
Market Reaction and Regulatory Oversight
Crypto markets stumbled during early Asian trading on Friday following the news. Bitcoin dropped 5% to hit $77,380, reaching its lowest point in six weeks. Tim Sun, a senior researcher at Hong Kong-based HashKey Group, noted that the event could cool investor appetite and force market participants to re-evaluate holding funds on centralized platforms. The fallout is drawing close attention from international watchdogs. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed it’s engaging with Binance to evaluate the breach’s broader impact, while the Bank of England is also monitoring potential financial system exposure. Over the course of last year, cybercriminals stole $2.9bn in virtual currencies across nearly 150 separate attacks, highlighting ongoing vulnerabilities across the industry.