Binance Hack Drains $6.3B in Crypto's Largest Theft Ever

Binance is clawing its way back from the biggest heist crypto has ever seen. According to Cointelegraph, the exchange confirmed $6.3B was stolen last week, with early findings pointing at a compromised engineer's laptop as the entry point.

The attacker didn't get a clean getaway. Tether and Circle froze more than $2.36B, pushing total frozen assets to roughly $3B. Aave slammed its markets shut after the attacker borrowed $44.6M, then reopened them once contracts were confirmed untouched. Blockaid flagged that EIP-7702 may have helped the thief slip past safeguards, per Cointelegraph.

Binance moved fast on the money side, reserving $6.34B to cover losses, including $5B in matching tokens. Withdrawals came back across 15 networks on Sunday, and the exchange reported $3.64B in net withdrawals during that day's first 9.5 hours.

The recovery pace is striking. Binance said it was 90% replenished by Oct. 31, then 95% by Nov. 1, and withdrawal volumes stabilized by Nov. 2.

Investigators tied the attack to North Korea's TraderTraitor outfit, and the FBI and Secret Service joined the recovery push. Binance also says it found additional breach points beyond the laptop.

The fallout landed in Washington too, where politicians clashed over regulation as the dust settled. Binance says it will cover all losses.