Binance attacker consolidates 508,621 ETH after draining up to $6.43B, analysts report
CIE News ·
Based on reporting by BeInCrypto; not yet independently confirmed.
Blockchain analytics firms report an attacker drained between $6.3 billion and $6.43 billion from Binance hot wallets, freezing efforts locked over $2.7 billion, and reserves will cover all losses.
An attacker drained between $6.3 billion and $6.43 billion from Binance hot wallets on October 29, 2026, according to blockchain analytics firms Elliptic and Bitquery. Bitquery reported that the transfers originated from 17 hot wallets across nine blockchains within less than four hours, after an intruder accessed an engineer's laptop and tapped the platform's withdrawal system. Elliptic assessed that North Korea's TraderTraitor group is likely behind the theft, which on-chain investigator ZachXBT linked to a $388 million breach of Bitget.
Following the drain, the attacker swapped stolen tokens and stablecoins to amass 508,621 ETH, holding about $3.2 billion in liquid crypto assets, according to the analytics firms. In response, asset issuers including Tether, Circle, Ripple, and the Arbitrum Security Council froze between $2.7 billion and $2.84 billion of the illicitly transferred funds on-chain, mainly denominated in USDT and USDC.
Binance Co-CEO Yi He confirmed that platform deposits and withdrawals are temporarily halted. Yi He stated that corporate reserves and the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) will cover all customer losses.
Key facts
- $6.3B-$6.43B drained
- 508,621 ETH held
- $2.84B frozen on-chain
- Withdrawals paused
Read the original at BeInCrypto