£4.7 billion stolen from crypto giant Binance after engineer’s laptop is compromised
Crypto currency exchange Binance has confirmed that some $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion) has been stolen in a targeted attack, the largest theft of its kind in history.
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies, allowing users to buy popular tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In a statement published in the early hours of Friday morning (30 October), Binance said its initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
The group added that it has found no evidence of any wallet private key leak, but did not specify where exactly the funds were taken from.
“We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified.
“The estimated total impact sits at around $6.3 billion. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far. Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe. We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete,” it said.
As an immediate precaution, Binance said it has:
- Temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed;
- Revoked the affected address authorisation;
- Engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds.
“Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice.
“Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates. Please feel free to contact Binance Customer Support if you have any further questions.”
