Binance Moves to Freeze Assets After the Largest Heist in Crypto History, Worth $6.3 Billion

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is working with partners to freeze affected assets after hackers stole $6.3 billion. Analysts are calling it the biggest attack in crypto history.

U.S. blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis say North Korean hackers were behind the attack. According to TRM Labs, the attackers targeted Binance wallets across 10 blockchains and moved most of the funds in roughly 20 minutes.

Binance said it is working with partners to freeze the affected assets and that the location of about $3 billion in funds has been identified. No information has been provided on the fate of the remaining $3.3 billion. Co-founder Yi He said Binance will cover “all hacker losses.”

The company said user deposits were not affected and that it expects to restore withdrawal services within the next 48 hours.

The North Korea Trail

According to TRM, several features of the attack match earlier thefts linked to North Korea. These include the 2025 attack on the Bybit exchange, which the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attributed to Pyongyang. North Korea’s mission in Geneva and its embassy in China did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

“This is the largest hacking attack in history,” said Aravind Srinivasan, head of the systematic OTC business at GSR, a major crypto market maker.

The Attack Began with an Engineer’s Laptop

According to Binance’s preliminary investigation, the attack began with a compromised laptop belonging to one of its engineers. This allowed the hacker to gain access to one of the company’s systems and make unauthorized withdrawals.

“The incident stems from multiple factors. Our security team is tracing the full path of the attack through the compromised computer, which may have been the entry point of the incident,” the company said.

Market Reaction

Markets reacted immediately during Asian trading on Friday:

Bitcoin fell more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368.

Ether (Ethereum) also dropped more than 3%, falling to a two-month low of $2,178.

BNB , the token used to pay Binance fees, fell 5% over the past 24 hours to $709.70, according to CoinGecko.

Shares of Coinbase Global (COIN.O) and of bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR.O) fell 4.8%. In broader U.S. trading, the decline was about 6%.

Freezing of Funds

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen about $1.57 billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle said it had frozen more than $800 million. According to Yi He, Ripple has also frozen about $200 million in funds. Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president for stablecoins, said the company is closely monitoring information about the potential exploit and is in contact with the relevant parties.

World Liberty Financial , the crypto company linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s family, said it is working with custodian BitGo to freeze the stolen funds. According to Yi He, $27 million in stablecoins and about $2 million worth of World Liberty tokens have been frozen.

Implications for the Industry

Analysts believe the impact may extend beyond the lost assets alone. The cryptocurrency market was already under pressure from high interest rates in the U.S. and weakening demand for exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Tim Sun, senior researcher at Hong Kong’s HashKey Group, believes the incident could further reduce risk appetite: “Investors may reassess the security of assets held on centralized exchanges, as well as counterparty, solvency and liquidity risks.”

Bernardo Brites, CEO of payments and stablecoin infrastructure company Trace Finance, pointed to the role of artificial intelligence: “It is becoming much harder to defend against attacks because AI can find vulnerabilities faster than you can fix them.” In his view, users may move away from small and mid-sized exchanges, since keeping funds on a platform that cannot cover a significant loss is risky.

Binance’s Scale and Safety Fund

Binance has 335 million registered users worldwide. According to the exchange’s 2025 annual report, it had about $162.8 billion in assets under its control. According to the company’s website, it maintains a safe assets fund for users, held entirely in bitcoin. The fund is designed to protect user assets in the event of security breaches. “User funds remain safe,” Binance said.

The List of Crypto Thefts Grows

Miguel Morel, CEO of blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, said data show that billions of dollars were stolen from Binance by an unknown party.

According to TRM Labs, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency in about 150 attacks last year. In September, it was reported that about $350 million in crypto was stolen from the Bitget exchange. Authorities, meanwhile, warn that organized criminal groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to move funds across borders outside the traditional financial system.