Binance plans to resume withdrawal services within 48 hours following a security incident that prompted the exchange to temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals. Co-Founder and Co-CEO Yi He stated that deposits remain unaffected and continue to operate normally, while the team works on enhancements to withdrawal services and address controls.
Scale of the Breach
The exploit began at approximately 20:20 UTC on Thursday, 29 October, targeting Binance's primary Ethereum hot wallet. About two hours later, Binance acknowledged the attack and suspended all deposits and withdrawals while opening investigations.
The exchange estimated stolen funds at approximately $6.3 billion, making it the largest hack in cryptocurrency history. The attacker drained hot wallets across 10 blockchain networks, with Ethereum and Bitcoin accounting for 83% of the total loss.
Breakdown by Network
- Ethereum: $3.74 billion
- Bitcoin: 18,270.2 BTC ($1.47 billion)
- TRON: $612.7 million USDT and 46.4 million TRX ($627 million total)
- Solana: $96 million
- Arbitrum: $32 million
- Avalanche: $24 million
Recovery Efforts
Industry partners including Tether, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Arbitrum, World Liberty Financials, and Binance have frozen approximately $2.8 billion in stolen funds, representing nearly half of the total heist and consisting primarily of stablecoins with freezing capabilities.
According to on-chain analysis, the attacker retains access to approximately $3.27 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum assets that cannot be immediately frozen.
Attribution and Response
Web3 security investigators and Chainalysis attributed the hack to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, citing co-mingling of Binance's stolen funds with addresses associated with the Bitget $388 million exploit.
Binance traced the exploit to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which granted the attacker access to the exchange's internal infrastructure and the ability to authorize transfers. The exchange stated there were no wallet private key leaks and pledged to cover all losses.
Market Impact
The incident drove market sentiment to fear levels last observed in August. Bitcoin's value declined 7 percent to $76,500 before attempting a rebound.
