The cryptocurrency exchange Binance confirmed on October 29, 2026 the theft of $6.3 billion in digital assets, the largest crypto heist on record and four times the previous record, according to Wired. The company reported on the social network X that user funds are safe, that close to $3 billion has already been frozen, and that it will cover all losses. It also said it allocated more than $6.34 billion of its own resources to address the incident.

According to analysis by the tracking firm TRM Labs, most of the theft took place over about 20 minutes on October 29. The initial investigation pointed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which allowed an attacker to access a services container and send unauthorized withdrawals, Binance explained in a series of updates. Co-CEO Richard Teng stated that the attack was more complex than a single click and that no individual was assigned responsibility.

For millions of users in Mexico who use centralized platforms as a bridge between pesos, dollars, remittances and digital assets, the episode illustrates the kind of risk involved in leaving funds in an exchange's custody: if the platform falls, the user depends on the company to respond. Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals after the theft and revoked the authorization of the affected address.

Three blockchain analysis firms link the attack to a possible North Korean origin. The Verge reports that TRM and Chainalysis attribute the operation to TraderTraitor, a group with a history of exchange thefts, which the FBI identified in last year's Bybit hack. Tom Robinson, chief scientist at Elliptic, told Wired that his firm did not specifically link the case to the group, though he sees similarities in the modus operandi. Neither Binance nor the authorities have named formal suspects.

Of the reported amount, close to $2.8 billion, around 44%, was frozen, mostly stablecoins, according to Robinson. The rest is mainly Bitcoin, Ether and XRP, which cannot be frozen and are only stopped when they reach an exchange. The outcome hinges on what happens with deposits and withdrawals, suspended since Thursday, and on the progress of investigations with the authorities.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.