Binance Hack: $6.3 Billion Stolen in Biggest Crypto Theft on Record; What Indian Users Should Know

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has confirmed a security breach in which about $6.3 billion in crypto assets were taken. That makes this the largest crypto theft ever reported. The previous record was the $1.5 billion taken from the Bybit exchange in February 2025.

The exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals while it investigates. Binance has said “user funds are safe” and that it will cover all losses from its SAFU emergency fund and its own company funds.

How the attack happened

According to Binance’s early findings, the attacker got in through a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, and used that access to make unauthorised withdrawals. A later check found additional points of entry, which the company has not described. Binance said it has found no evidence that private keys were exposed.

Blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis reported that most of the funds moved out within about 20 minutes, starting late on Thursday. TRM said it has “high confidence” that TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit linked to the Lazarus Group, was behind it, and Chainalysis reached the same view. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng has been more careful, saying its own investigation has not attributed responsibility to anyone yet. North Korea routinely denies involvement in such attacks.

What was taken and what has been frozen

Data from Glassnode, as reported by Yahoo Finance, showed the stolen assets included about $1.66 billion in USDT, 17,985 bitcoin worth about $1.45 billion at the time, around $767 million in USDC, plus ether and smaller tokens.

About $3 billion has been frozen so far. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle together froze more than $2.3 billion of their tokens, which they can do because they control those coins. The fate of the remaining $3.3 billion or so is still unclear.

Market reaction

Bitcoin fell to a six-week low near $76,400 before recovering a little. Ether dropped to around $2,200. Shares of US-listed crypto companies such as Coinbase, Strategy and Robinhood fell about 5 percent in pre-market trade on Friday. Former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao posted that “it does look like a hack on Binance”.

What Indian users should do

Many Indian traders hold funds on Binance. If you are one of them:

• Do not panic-sell on other platforms based on social media rumours. Binance has said it expects withdrawals to resume within about 45 to 48 hours, after security checks.
• Ignore anyone offering to “recover” your Binance funds or asking for your login, seed phrase or OTP. Fake recovery agents always appear after big hacks.
• Turn on two-factor authentication and withdrawal address whitelisting on every exchange you use.
• Keep screenshots of your balances and transaction history, in case you need them for a claim or for tax records later.

For other market news, see our post on the Jio Platforms listing.

Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Crypto assets are highly risky and largely unregulated in India. We will update this article when Binance publishes its post-mortem.

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