Binance loses $6.3bn in 20 minutes: can Richard Teng cover every loss?

Attackers drained approximately $6.3 billion from Binance wallets across ten blockchains on October 29, 2026, most of it in about 20 minutes starting at 20:05 UTC. TRM Labs puts the figure at $6.36 billion and attributes the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, North Korea's elite hacking unit. It is the largest crypto theft on record — roughly four times the $1.5 billion Bybit hack of February 2025.

Binance confirmed a security incident and temporarily suspended withdrawals and some trading services. Bitcoin and other crypto prices fell on the news.

The technical picture points to a compromise of Binance's hot wallet signing infrastructure. On Ethereum, TRM Labs identified an EIP-7702 delegation that turned a Binance hot wallet into an attacker-controlled sweeper, armed with 50 pre-signed authorizations. On nine other chains, the attacker used ordinary signed transfers. That combination — one delegated contract plus dozens of pre-authorized movements — suggests the attacker held keys or signing authority, not that they exploited a smart contract bug.

The FBI said it is aware of the incident and is coordinating with partners "to understand the scope of the activity, evaluate potential impacts, and coordinate appropriate investigative steps." The Secret Service said investigators were working around the clock.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said in a video on October 30 that the company would cover every loss with company money, aimed to reopen withdrawals by Sunday, and promised a full proof-of-reserves report by Monday. About $3 billion in crypto assets had been frozen so far.

Co-founder Changpeng Zhao said the incident looked like a hack, then asked Elon Musk to stop trolling the exchange and show support, noting Binance's SpaceX stake is worth more than $1 billion.

The response now tests whether Binance can make users whole and prove reserves, whether US law enforcement can trace and recover funds tied to a state-linked actor, and whether the market treats this as an isolated operational failure or a systemic trust problem. Teng, a former financial regulator, has been co-CEO with co-founder Yi He since December 2025.