Binance says about $6.3 billion was stolen and it will cover all losses

Binance posted a series of updates saying a security incident led to an estimated total impact of around $6.3 billion, and that it will cover all losses through its SAFU fund and company funds, with user funds said to remain safe. The exchange says it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze about $3 billion of the affected assets on-chain so far and has reserved over $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the incident, including $5 billion already held in the exact token assets impacted.

Binance's initial investigation pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop that it says allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions, with no evidence found of a leaked wallet private key. A later update said the investigation had since uncovered additional points of breach beyond the laptop, calling it a complex attack, and that the root cause is not yet final.

As immediate precautions, Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address's authorization, and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and recover funds. A later update said deposits were operating normally again, while withdrawals stayed paused, with Binance aiming to resume them within about 45 to 48 hours. Binance says it will publish a detailed technical post-mortem and an updated Proof of Reserves once the investigation and remediation are complete.

Why it matters

It's one of the largest crypto exchange security incidents on record, and how Binance handles recovery and disclosure will shape trust in centralized exchanges.

Source: Binance on X