Binance Robbed of 6.3 Billion Dollars: The Biggest Crypto Heist in History Started With a Single Laptop

The world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, has confirmed that digital assets worth 6.3 billion dollars were stolen from it. The attack is already being called "the biggest heist in history" - and this time it isn't an exaggeration. The previous record, the 2025 hack of the Bybit exchange, came in at 1.5 billion dollars. This one is more than four times bigger.

And according to initial internal checks, it all started with one compromised laptop belonging to one engineer. Through it, the attacker reached the service system and triggered unauthorised withdrawals. A company with over 300 million registered users, which said in 2024 that it holds more than 160 billion dollars of other people's assets, fell for the oldest trick in the book: one infected device in the right place. Binance says there is no evidence that the wallets' private keys were leaked.

The trail leads east. Cybersecurity firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor, and did so, as it put it, "with a high degree of confidence". According to the firm, a number of elements of the attack match earlier operations linked to the Pyongyang regime, including the Bybit case. TRM Labs' head of global policy, Ari Redbord, called the heist "a turning point" and warned that the attacker still holds an enormous sum, so the hunt is only beginning. Binance didn't respond directly about the North Korean link, saying only that it is "working closely with law enforcement" to identify the criminals.

Then came the rescue operation - and it says more than the attack itself. Binance claims that together with partners it has already frozen around 3 billion dollars. Tether and Circle together blocked around 2.4 billion: Circle over 800 million in USDC, Tether around 1.6 billion in USDT. Help was also confirmed by World Liberty Financial, the crypto project tied to US President Donald Trump and his family. So when it's needed, "decentralised" money gets frozen with a few clicks by a few companies. Good news for the victims. A lesson for everyone who believed crypto has no boss.

Binance has promised to cover all losses from its SAFU protection fund and from company funds, and deposits and withdrawals have been temporarily halted while the entire system is checked. Several independent analysts, meanwhile, had flagged suspicious transactions hours before the company publicly admitted a breach. Who knew - and why were users the last to find out?

The market reacted immediately: bitcoin fell more than 4 percent, and ethereum and solana also dropped sharply. The smaller subsidiary Binance.US, which only serves customers in the US, said it was not affected, and rival Coinbase said it had suffered no intrusion.

How many people in the Balkans keep their savings on an exchange, convinced it's "safer than a bank"? The old crypto rule says: not your keys, not your coins. Yesterday that rule got its most expensive proof yet.