Binance reports $6.3 billion token loss after hot-wallet breach

Binance said on Oct. 30 that a compromise of its hot wallets resulted in the loss of approximately $6.3 billion worth of token assets. The company said the incident occurred at about 20:05 UTC on Oct. 29 and involved unauthorized withdrawals.

Binance said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the stolen assets, including $5 billion held in the same token assets that were taken. The exchange said that amount covered about 80% of the impacted sum and that it was buying the remaining assets through market and over-the-counter channels. Binance said users would not bear the financial impact.

The exchange reported that approximately $3 billion had been frozen on-chain as of the update. It said it was working with law enforcement, blockchain intelligence firms, asset issuers and industry partners to trace and recover funds. The announcement did not say that the frozen assets had been returned.

Binance said withdrawals were temporarily suspended while it carried out security reviews and remediation. Deposits and other services it described as unaffected remained operational, according to the company. Its technical team was targeting the start of a phased withdrawal-service restart in about 34 hours, subject to completing security checks. The update did not confirm whether withdrawals had since resumed.

The company said its initial investigation suggested a laptop might have been compromised, but subsequent work had identified additional points of breach. Binance said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. It described the investigation as ongoing and said it expected to share verified technical findings in about 48 hours, provided disclosure would not compromise the inquiry.

Binance also said it planned to take an initial Proof of Reserves snapshot in 12 hours and have the results ready by Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. It said the reports would show platform asset holdings and the corresponding backing of user balances. The company said it was also preparing a technical post-mortem and continuing efforts to recover frozen funds.