Binance hackers drained $2.5B in one transaction, paid $15 in fees

The hackers behind the Binance exploit drained $2.5 billion in one single transaction, according to Bloomberg. Their network fee for the whole heist: about $15. That is not a typo, and it is the number security teams will be chewing on for a while.

The cheap exit reportedly ran through a feature introduced by Ethereum's EIP-7702 upgrade, per Bloomberg. EIP-7702 shipped as part of Ethereum's Pectra changes and lets an ordinary wallet temporarily hand control to a smart contract, enabling things like batched transactions and sponsored gas. Handy for users. Apparently handy for thieves too.

Put the two figures side by side and the story writes itself. Fifteen dollars of gas against $2.5 billion of movement — a ratio that would have been unthinkable on Ethereum a few years back, when a transfer of that size would have cost real money in fees and, more importantly, drawn attention.

What makes this one sting is the origin of the tool. EIP-7702 was pitched as a way to make everyday wallets smarter and cheaper to use, not as a highway for nine-figure drains. Now the upgrade's delegation feature is the center of attention, with Bloomberg reporting it as the mechanism behind the transaction.

Binance has not been shy about being a target before, and this episode hands the industry another data point on how quickly onchain rails can be turned against their users. The details come from Bloomberg, with Cointelegraph flagging the $15 fee figure. Expect the postmortems to focus on what wallets and exchanges do next with 7702-style delegation.