R110bn compromised in crypto’s biggest-ever breach

A security breach at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has had an estimated impact of $6.3bn, the biggest crypto heist ever.

Binance said it had worked with partners to freeze the affected assets, with about $3bn located so far, Reuters reports.

It gave no update on the status of the remaining $3.3bn, though its co-founder Yi He said the company would cover all hacking losses.

The exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals while it investigates, and said its security team is tracing the attack path through a compromised computer that may have been the entry point.

Binance’s initial findings, reported by Cointelegraph and others, point to a compromised dev-ops engineer’s laptop that allowed an attacker to reach a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawals. Binance said it would cover losses from its SAFU emergency fund and company funds, and that user funds are safe.

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen nearly $1.57bn in assets linked to the incident and Circle more than $800m. World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to US President Donald Trump’s family, said it had worked with the custodian BitGo to freeze funds stolen in the hack. Binance.US, a separate exchange, said it was not affected.

The previous record for a crypto theft was $1.5bn, taken from Bybit by North Korean hackers in February 2025, NBC News reported. Bitcoin slid to around $76,000 to $77,000 on the news, CoinDesk reported. Unlike bank deposits, funds held on exchanges are not automatically insured, so refunds are at the discretion of the exchange.

Sources: Reuters, 29 October 2026; NBC News; CoinDesk; Cointelegraph.