Binance suffered hack estimated at $6.3 billion, largest crypto theft in history

The cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance confirmed on Thursday, October 29, that it had been the victim of a major hack, the damage of which is estimated at some $6.3 billion, with half of the funds having been frozen to prevent a massive theft. This figure, communicated overnight, would make this attack the largest ever recorded against a cryptocurrency exchange platform, far surpassing known precedents in the sector.

In a press release, Binance specifies: “We have worked with partners specializing in blockchain to freeze the affected assets; approximately $3 billion has been frozen on-chain [blocked on the blockchain] so far.” Around 1:30 a.m. Friday, Binance announced that “all deposits and withdrawals” were “temporarily suspended.” Binance announced that it would cover “all losses”.

For several hours – before Binance confirmed the attack around 12:30 a.m. Friday – several specialists claimed that hackers had entered the platform. “This looks like a cyberattack on Binance,” commented on X Changpeng Zhao, former boss of the platform who no longer holds operational functions but still remains a majority shareholder of the group. He estimated that losses linked to this assault could be "a little higher" than a billion dollars.

In this context, all the main cryptocurrencies experienced a brief decline. The only exception was stablecoins: by definition, they can only fluctuate within very small margins. Bitcoin, which had fallen by almost 5% at the end of the American session, then recovered. Around 6 a.m., it only lost 0.83%, when ether posted a slight decline of 0.81%. Issued by Binance, the BNB cryptocurrency rebounded by 2.67% after having fallen by almost 10%.

Machine-translated from French