On the evening of October 29, billions of dollars were drained from Binance's hot wallets — the biggest hack in crypto history so far.
• Binance suspended all deposits and withdrawals and is working with law enforcement;
• the amount is still an estimate: Arkham saw more than $5.7B in the hacker's wallets, Chainalysis estimates ~$5.9B, Binance puts the damage at ~$6.3B;
• the previous record was the Bybit hack in February 2025 (~$1.5B) — this one is roughly four times bigger;
• how it happened: according to CoinDesk, citing Binance's initial investigation, an engineer's laptop was compromised and unauthorized withdrawals went through it; no wallet keys were found to have leaked;
• part of the money was frozen: Tether — over $1.57B in USDT, Circle — over $800M in USDC; about $3B frozen in total, per Binance;
• Binance co-founder Yi He: the exchange will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and company funds; Changpeng Zhao: user funds are safe;
• market: bitcoin fell 4.8%, below $77,000.
Who is behind the attack is not officially known; some analysts (TRM Labs, ZachXBT) suggest North Korean hackers — this is unconfirmed.
Watch out: scammers are already posing as Binance — don't click unofficial links and never share account access.
My forecast: in 3–5 years, AI will catch attacks like this in seconds — before the money can leave.
Not investment advice.
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Sources: Binance, Yi He, Changpeng Zhao and Paolo Ardoino (X), CoinDesk, TechCrunch. Footage: Bloomberg TV, Arkham (via Crypto Gorilla), BrokerChooser, Sky News, @cybersecuritygirl. Memes: Now You See Me (2013), Ocean's Eleven (2001).
Music: Ivan Art — «Midnight Resolve» (album Deep Wishes)
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