Kathmandu, October 30
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has suffered a cyberattack in which billions of dollars were stolen from users’ wallets.
According to news agencies, assets worth approximately USD 5.7 billion to USD 6.3 billion were stolen from Binance. The exchange has launched an investigation into what could potentially be the biggest heist in cryptocurrency history.
The news comes amid a series of major cyberattacks, AI-generated technical bugs and data theft incidents reported throughout October, prompting the technology industry to dub the month ‘Black October’.
Engineer’s laptop hacked, causing USD 6.3 billion in losses
According to on-chain analysts and cryptocurrency market monitoring firms, unauthorised transfers worth billions of dollars were suddenly made from Binance wallets on Thursday afternoon.
According to Binance’s preliminary investigation, attackers gained access to its servers after hacking the laptop of a senior DevOps engineer and used the access to transfer funds without authorisation. However, the wallet’s private keys are reportedly safe.
Following the incident, Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals. Subsequently, in coordination with major stablecoin companies such as Tether and Circle, the exchange managed to block or freeze approximately USD 3 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets stolen by the hackers.
Binance founder and former chief executive officer Changpeng Zhao said on X that customers’ funds were safe and that the exchange would provide full compensation using its emergency security fund and balance sheet.
Biggest heist in cryptocurrency history
If officially confirmed, the incident would be the largest cyberattack in cryptocurrency history.
Previously, in 2025, hackers linked to North Korea stole approximately USD 1.5 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. The latest incident would far surpass that record.
According to cryptocurrency analysts, an attack of this magnitude could have driven smaller exchanges into bankruptcy. Although Binance’s enormous financial capacity and insurance arrangements may enable it to compensate affected customers, prices of digital currencies, including Bitcoin, have declined across the broader cryptocurrency market.
Polymarket also targeted
Just hours before the attack on Binance, the decentralised prediction market Polymarket was also hit by a cyberattack.
Exploiting a vulnerability in DebugBear, a third-party website monitoring system, hackers stole at least USD 2.7 million from Polymarket users. The incident forced the platform to suspend trading for an hour.
US and international investigative agencies are conducting detailed investigations to identify the criminal groups or countries behind the series of cyberattacks reported throughout October.
