A hacker may have stolen €5.4 billion from the crypto trading platform Binance in what, if confirmed, could be the biggest crypto theft ever, causing currencies across the market to crash.
Binance confirmed the hack on Friday, after a suspected cyberattack on Thursday prompted the exchange to freeze more than $2.5 billion in funds and suspend all trading on the platform.
The company said a hacker may have carried out unauthorised withdrawals through a compromised laptop, adding that there was no evidence that private wallets or keys were breached.
Binance CEO Richard Teng said the attack was "not a one-click action," describing the hack as a "complex attack process." He promised to cover any potential losses from the hack, and said Binance was able to locate and freeze almost half of the stolen funds.
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If the €5.4 billion figure is confirmed, it would make it the largest crypto theft in history. In 2025, a North Korean collective of hackers managed to breach the security of Bybit, a trading platform similar to Binance, walking away with around €1.5 billion in currencies.
While Teng did not share any information on the initial suspects behind the hack, Crypto-tracing firm TRM Labs attributed the hack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking unit. "Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists, including the Bybit hack," TRM Labs says in a report.
What is Binance?
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange where users can trade various cryptocurrencies for other digital currencies as well as conventional fiat money.
It was founded in 2017 in the Chinese city of Shanghai by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He. As Chinese authorities started regulating cryptocurrency trading more strictly, the company moved its main office to Japan and later Malta, before introducing a model without a centralised main office.
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume, reporting revenue over €11 billion in 2022. It reports holding assets valued at over €110 billion, with the majority being Bitcoin and the so-called stablecoin USDT.
In recent years, Binance has been subject to several lawsuits, leading to the company losing its license in several countries. In 2023, Binance and its founder Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the American Bank Secrecy Act, breaching rules around money laundering requirements. Binance agreed to pay €4.3 billion in fines, and Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison.
He received an unconditional pardon from US President Donald Trump in October 2025.
