Binance halts trading after $6.3 billion hot-wallet breach

Binance halted trading Thursday after attackers took about $6.3 billion in token assets from its hot wallets, in what could be the largest crypto theft on record, Axios reported. Binance said the breach happened at about 20:05 UTC on Oct. 29 and that it would cover the stolen funds, according to its security incident update.

How did the attackers get into Binance’s wallets?

Binance said attackers made unauthorized withdrawals after compromising its hot wallets, which hold assets for transactions. The exchange’s initial investigation pointed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, but Binance said a later review uncovered additional points of breach.

Binance said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. It has not yet published a full account of how the attack unfolded.

How much has Binance recovered or frozen?

Binance said about $3 billion had been frozen on-chain by Oct. 30 through work with law enforcement, blockchain intelligence firms, asset issuers and other industry partners. The company said it would cover the losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users and corporate treasury.

In its Oct. 30 update, Binance said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds, including $5 billion in the affected tokens, and was buying the remaining assets through market and over-the-counter channels.

When will Binance restore withdrawals?

Binance said deposits and unaffected platform services remained operational, while withdrawals were temporarily suspended for security reviews and system checks. It set a target to begin restoring withdrawals in phases within about 34 hours, subject to those checks.

The exchange said it would publish further technical findings after verification and issue a post-incident report. Its investigation and efforts to trace and recover the stolen funds are continuing.

Source material

• Axios reported — axios.com
• security incident update — binance.com