Binance has recovered 90% of assets stolen in record hacking attack

In the largest recorded cyberattack, over six billion dollars were withdrawn from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. American agencies are working with private partners to assess the hack and recover the stolen funds, while Binance has promised to cover all losses.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is aware of the incident and is coordinating with partners to understand the scope of the activity, assess potential consequences, and organize appropriate investigative steps, as the agency stated in a message to Bloomberg News on Friday. A representative reported that FBI agents from the Secret Service are also collaborating around the clock with the private sector to recover the stolen assets.

The Department of Justice acknowledged receiving information about the attack, but representatives declined to comment on the progress of the investigation. Although the full details of the Binance hack have not yet been disclosed, this incident occurs amid growing concerns about the risks posed by hackers in the age of artificial intelligence.

Recent cyberattacks have affected the Polymarket prediction platform, South Korean financial companies Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. and Daishin Securities, as well as the Japanese currency trading platform GMO Internet Group Inc.

The largest cryptocurrency trading platform suspended withdrawals and committed to compensating for all losses. Binance co-founder Richard Teng stated in a video posted on social media on Friday that the exchange is capable of doing so due to continuous reinvestment of revenue into cryptocurrencies. Co-founder Yi He clarified that Binance's annual revenue would fully cover the lost amount. Withdrawals were expected to resume by Sunday.

Teng noted: 'Most of what we earn from daily operations is held in crypto assets. That is why we can immediately absorb a loss of this size using our own funds.'

Americans are prohibited from using this exchange; there is a separate, smaller entity, Binance.US.

This hack occurred during a period when the Trump administration and its regulators were actively promoting the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. In September, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a so-called innovation exemption that allows public company stocks to trade on blockchains. Experts believe that the Binance hack will likely intensify concerns among public company executives regarding the adoption of such technologies.

In turn, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently proposed regulations for digital asset markets and transactions. If approved, this measure will regulate leveraged futures trading offered to retail clients and create a new category for crypto exchanges offering such trades, requiring registration with the agency.

Austin Campbell, a cryptocurrency expert and former banker who is now an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business, compared the situation to car safety, stating that 'transactions need delays and checkpoints.' He added: 'A car can be faster, cheaper, and more economical if you remove all the airbags and seatbelts.'

Blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs, Chainalysis, and Elliptic pointed to North Korea as the organization behind the theft from Binance. Chainalysis classified the incident as 'the largest in crypto history and one of the biggest financial crimes of all time.' The funds seized during the attack consisted of a mix of major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, as well as dollar-backed stablecoins USDT and USDC.

Following the news of the attack on Binance, Bitcoin fell below $77,000 for the first time in over a month, remaining the largest traded currency near these low levels for most of Friday.

For cryptocurrency supporters who had enjoyed a two-month price recovery, the Binance incident overshadowed this rally.

Binance significantly surpasses its industry competitors, boasting assets worth approximately $135.2 billion compared to $28.6 billion held by the second-largest exchange, OKX, according to DefiLlama data.

Binance reported that the incident might be related to a compromised engineer's laptop, as well as 'additional points of entry.' The exchange stated that it found no evidence of leaked private keys.

In a post on X, Binance stated: 'It was a sophisticated attack, and we are doing everything possible in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it.'

In 2018, the exchange established an emergency insurance and reserve fund for users called the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), which serves as a guarantee for clients in 'extreme situations.' According to the exchange's report, SAFU is typically maintained at around $1 billion, but in 2024, it fluctuated in tandem with market movements.

The two largest stablecoin issuers announced measures to freeze the affected currencies. Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, stated in an X post that he froze over $1.5 billion of USDT stablecoin 'related to the potential Binance exchange hack.' Jeremy Allaire, managing director of Circle Internet Group Inc., stated that $800 million of his USDC token was frozen amid 'reports of a possible exploit related to Binance.'

Industry experts assert that the Binance hack, amounting to a record $6.3 billion and becoming the largest cryptocurrency theft globally, demonstrated operational weaknesses in crypto exchanges rather than any issues with the blockchain technology itself.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange estimated the total alleged damage at approximately $6.3 billion, which is four times the amount stolen during the previous record—the Bybit hack. About $3 billion in assets that passed through wallets linked to hackers were identified and frozen. The exchange promised to cover all incurred losses.

Binance reported that initial investigations pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed the attacker access to a service container and sent unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Later, the exchange clarified that further study uncovered additional points of entry, contradicting the initial finding of a single compromised laptop. However, the exchange stated it found no evidence of private wallet key leakage.

The UAE financial services regulator overseeing the Abu Dhabi Global Market stated that it is aware of the incident and is monitoring the situation. Binance confirmed that it has allocated over $6.34 billion from its own funds to cover the consequences of this incident.

Georgy Kucherin, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky GReAT, noted that the attack on Binance and a separate incident on the Polymarket prediction platform involving a compromised script from third-party developer DebugBear prove that exchanges can be hacked both through internal systems and external dependencies. He added that technical personnel remain the weak link, as even experienced engineers can inadvertently upload malware.

Sandip Pyapali, founder and CEO of Mesta, suggested that the attacker likely used the exchange's own access channels. He believes that if the hacker gained privileges through an employee's device, the system might have accepted the withdrawals as legitimate. Pyapali characterized the event as a 'maturity test' for the crypto industry, not a catastrophe, noting that exchanges will now require more robust safeguards, deeper insurance, and larger reserves.

Karsten Menke, Head of Next Generation Research at Julius Baer, stated that this incident is a 'company problem, not a crypto problem,' thereby highlighting the risks of holding assets on centralized exchanges. He recommended using self-custody in offline cold storage to reduce risk exposure. Menke also mentioned that there is no evidence of AI involvement in the attack, but noted that AI reduces the cost and speed of sophisticated attacks. He cited industry estimates that one of four malicious attacks now utilizes AI, reiterating Julius Baer's constructive view on cybersecurity.

Vincent Choc, CEO and Founder of First Digital, noted that the past day showed how crucial coordination between exchanges, issuers, and networks is when they exchange information within hours. Sergey Kunts, co-founder of 1inch, reported that Tether and Circle froze over $2.4 billion in stablecoins, and other teams blocked addresses associated with the exploit. According to him, this 'significantly limited' the attackers' ability to move funds.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, was the victim of the sector's largest hacker attack, resulting in the theft of $6.3 billion (approximately R$ 34 billion) on Thursday, the 29th.

Micaella Ribeiro, co-founder of IAM Brasil and an expert in Information Security and Identity and Access Management, commented that this incident demonstrates a significant shift in the landscape of digital threats during an interview with Olhar Digital.

The platform, used for trading and custody of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, suffered the attack around 5 PM Brasília time, and the process lasted about twenty minutes, according to analysis of transaction records by specialists.

Companies specializing in cryptocurrency tracking, such as TRM Labs and Chainalysis, pointed out that those responsible for the theft were hackers associated with North Korea. Although Binance had not yet identified the criminals at the time of publication, the company began recovering the affected assets for users.

Binance publicly declared that it would cover the losses using its own funds, reserving more than $6.34 billion to cover the incident. Of these amounts, $5 billion is already in impacted token assets, and the purchase of the remainder is being made through market and OTC channels, although this process may take longer due to the liquidity of some tokens.

Currently, $3 billion has been blocked with the help of industry partners, and the exchange continues to work with law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, to recover these funds.

The company temporarily suspended withdrawals, assuring that customer money is safe and promising to cover any losses. So far, about $3 billion in stolen cryptocurrencies have been located, part of which has been blocked by other companies in the segment.

Initially, Binance suspected that the attack occurred through the intrusion into one of its engineers' computers. Later, the company disclosed that it had identified security vulnerabilities that could have been exploited by cybercriminals. According to TRM Labs, the hackers managed to compromise the system responsible for authorizing cryptocurrency transfers.

Part of the amount stolen was in stablecoins, which function as a reflection of real fiat currencies, such as the US dollar. Several entities blocked resources: Tether froze a little over $1.5 billion; Circle blocked more than $800 million; and Ripple retained about $200 million.

Additionally, Reuters reported that World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company linked to U.S. President Donald Trump and his family, also collaborated in blocking these resources, which prevents the movement of the stolen cryptocurrencies.

Founded in 2017 in Shanghai, China, Binance has 335 million registered global users, according to its 2025 annual report. This report indicated that the company managed approximately $162.8 billion in digital assets.

Micaella Ribeiro emphasizes that an attack on an exchange does not necessarily imply that blockchain technology has been compromised, but stresses the inherent risks of using cryptocurrencies. She differentiates between the security of blockchain technology and the security of the platforms used to buy, sell, and store these assets.

According to the expert, this attack underscores an alarming trend: criminals are focusing on compromising identities, devices, and systems that already hold valid permissions to perform crucial operations. This increases concern about non-human identities, such as APIs, applications, and service accounts, which often have high privileges without the same level of governance given to conventional users.

For Ribeiro, the primary lesson is that a technically authorized operation is not always a legitimate operation. Therefore, she advocates that organizations need to change their security strategy, going beyond protecting initial access, requiring continuous verification of who accesses, what privileges they have, and whether the actions are consistent with their responsibilities.

Regarding investors, the expert advises that the most important thing is to follow the official communications of the exchange, monitor any movement restrictions, and increase vigilance against fraud that may arise from the repercussions of the incident.