Massive loss for Binance
Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance, an event Elliptic calls the largest theft of any kind in history. Binance expects to allow withdrawals again in the next 48 hours, according to a post on X from Yi He early Friday. The exchange stated it found no evidence that hackers breached unique user codes, known as "private keys." Following the heist, Paolo Ardoino, the chief executive of Tether, froze about $1.5 billion of its $180 billion USDT stablecoin. Jeremy Allaire, the head of Circle, reported that $800 million of USDC froze amid "reports of a potential exploit" at Binance. Analytics firm Elliptic verified $2.8 billion of frozen crypto, mostly USDT and USDC, but the hackers moved the remaining funds into assets such as the ETH crypto token that companies cannot freeze. The theft is the largest in history, according to Elliptic.
| Asset Type | Amount | Entity/Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cryptocurrency | $6.3 billion | Binance | Stolen |
| USDT | $1.5 billion | Tether | Frozen |
| USDC | $800 million | Circle | Frozen |
| Crypto | $2.8 billion | Elliptic | Verified frozen |
| Cryptocurrency | $2 billion | North Korea | Stolen in 2025 |
| Cryptocurrency | $390 million | Bitget | Stolen last month |
Regulatory context and previous thefts
The $6.3 billion theft follows a period of regulatory difficulty for Binance, which wound down its EU operations in July because it failed to secure a license under the bloc’s new framework. The exchange became regulated in Abu Dhabi in December 2025, where Zhao and He, who are romantic partners, are based, but it had already blocked UK customers from signing up after Britain’s financial watchdog barred them in 2021. Binance has no official headquarters. In the US, Binance operates through a separate entity from the rest of its global operations that is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and is authorized to operate as a money transmitter in 32 different states and provides services to users in those regions. This massive theft exceeds recent incidents like the $390 million stolen from Bitget last month, which reimbursed its customers from its User Protection Fund. North Korean hackers stole about $2 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 50 percent increase from the year before, according to data from Chainalysis.
