Binance is confronting the largest cryptocurrency theft on record after attackers drained at least $6.4 billion from exchange-linked wallets on October 29, 2026. Estimates placed the broader exploit at between $6.3 billion and $6.36 billion across ten blockchain networks. Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group linked to the Lazarus operation and previously blamed for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025.
Initial reports showed at least $5.57 billion leaving Binance-associated wallets across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron. The attackers moved more than $1.6 billion in USDT to a newly created Ethereum address and later used decentralized platforms such as Uniswap and Aave to shift funds into ETH. Because Ethereum cannot be centrally frozen, stolen funds became harder to stop once converted. Tether and Circle froze roughly $1.8 billion in the initial response, later freezing a total of $2.39 billion. Binance and its partners reportedly froze about $3 billion in stolen assets across affected ecosystems.
Ripple also became a central part of the response. Attackers withdrew approximately 233.46 million XRP, worth about $296 million, from Binance hot wallets. Ripple separately detected suspicious RLUSD stablecoin movements and restricted addresses tied to the theft. Ripple Senior Vice President Jack McDonald confirmed the company blocked the affected RLUSD holdings, and Binance co-founder Yi He thanked Ripple for helping freeze about $200 million in RLUSD. Ripple’s intervention targeted RLUSD because XRP does not support issuer-controlled freezing through the XRP Ledger.
Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz added an unusual note by mocking Stellar amid the crisis. Responding to complaints that hackers emptied compromised balances, Schwartz joked that attackers had deposited unwanted Stellar tokens into a Binance account, writing: “These sick bastards dropped an extra 517 XLM into my Binance account!” The remark highlighted the historical rivalry between Ripple and Stellar, founded by former Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao also responded to public pressure, particularly after Elon Musk posted a grimacing emoji on a thread estimating Binance’s uncovered losses near $1 billion. CZ wrote that he respects Musk but asked him to stop trolling, pointing to Binance’s SpaceX shares from its $500 million investment in Musk’s Twitter takeover, which CZ said are worth more than $1 billion. Binance co-CEO Yi He added that annual revenue is sufficient to cover losses and that the exchange does not need to sell SpaceX shares. CZ later clarified he never suggested selling the shares, but was showing Musk available funds. Binance said it has reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the incident, including $5 billion already held in the stolen tokens.
