Binance Hit by Record $6.3 Billion Hack via Employee Laptop

Binance has disclosed the largest hack in cryptocurrency history. Attackers compromised the laptop of an employee on its DevOps team and used it to carry out unauthorized transfers worth about $6.3 billion.

The figure far exceeds the previous record, the 2025 Bybit breach, which totaled $1.5 billion. Binance has temporarily frozen deposits and withdrawals while the investigation continues, and says it will fully cover all customer losses.

Part of the funds frozen

Roughly $3 billion was frozen quickly, mostly in stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. Tether and Circle, the issuers of those tokens, responded within hours and halted the assets.

About $2.4 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum, however, remains in the attackers' wallets. No central party can easily freeze or recover those coins, which makes recovery far harder.

Why it matters

Recovering the stolen assets now depends largely on the attackers trying to cash out through exchanges that cooperate with law enforcement. That process could take months or even years.

The market reacted immediately: Bitcoin fell more than 4% to below $78,000. The incident also raises uncomfortable questions for an industry that has long presented itself as secure. Assets that companies could control were stopped within hours, while funds outside any central control stayed out of everyone's reach.