Facts
- Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Thursday, October 29, 2026, that it was investigating a potential security issue, the Associated Press reported on October 30. Late Thursday the company said the estimated total impact exceeded $6 billion. A post on X put the figure at about $6.3 billion.
- Binance said roughly $3 billion had been frozen on-chain so far. The company had not explicitly confirmed that funds were stolen, and the extent of possible damage was unclear, the AP reported. A PBS NewsHour segment described the event as ‘the biggest crypto heist in history.’
- Binance’s initial investigation suggests a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop let an attacker reach a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawals. The company said it found no evidence that a wallet private key leaked. All deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while it runs security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement.
- Stablecoin issuers froze funds in response. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle froze more than $800 million equivalent, in coordination with law enforcement. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tether froze more than $1.5 billion equivalent.
- Bitcoin fell 3.2% on Thursday evening to under $79,000, the AP reported.
- A Binance spokesperson said user funds are ‘completely safe.’ The AP noted that this had not been independently verified. The company said it would share technical details once facts are verified. In the PBS segment, the company was reported to say it would cover investors’ losses.
- Changpeng Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017 and no longer manages it, wrote that ‘User funds are safe!’ and called the event a hack. Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to a felony related to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform, stepped down as CEO, and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025. The AP noted that Zhao and Binance have been key supporters of some Trump family crypto enterprises.
- On PBS, investigative journalist Geoff White said employees were likely targeted by phishing messages, but said that was based on ‘what we know’ and was not confirmed. He said investigators have traced some of the funds to wallets they believe North Korea controls. Binance has not attributed the incident to any group.
- White said about $3 billion was held in Tether, which could be frozen, and that the remaining roughly $3.3 billion was in bitcoin-type currencies that no central authority can block.
Quotes
Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder, wrote: “User funds are safe!” He also said the incident “does look like a hack on Binance.”
Binance spokesperson said user funds are “completely safe.”
Source Read the Associated Press report on PBS NewsHour here.
Image No photo for this story.
