About US$6.3 billion drains out of Binance overnight in what may be the biggest crypto theft yet
Binance has stopped deposits and withdrawals after roughly US$6.3 billion in crypto left wallets linked to the exchange between 23:04 on Thursday and 02:56 on Friday, Nairobi time. Blockchain analysts at TRM Labs count about US$6.36 billion moved across ten networks, mostly Ethereum but also Bitcoin, TRON, Solana and others, and say the attacker had been preparing for at least 36 hours. Binance's first findings point to a compromised laptop belonging to one of its DevOps engineers, used to get into a service that could submit withdrawals; it says it has found no sign that its wallets' private keys leaked. About US$3 billion has been frozen on-chain, mostly stablecoins, whose issuers, including Tether and Circle, can block tokens; Bitcoin and Ether cannot be frozen that way, and about US$729 million in stablecoins was swapped before the freezes landed. TRM Labs and Chainalysis attribute the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean group blamed for the US$1.5 billion Bybit theft in 2025; Binance has not named anyone. Binance says customer funds are safe, that losses will be covered from its SAFU emergency fund and its own money, and that it expects withdrawals to resume within 48 hours after security checks; it has not said how big the shortfall is or published new proof of its reserves. For Kenyans, Binance's peer-to-peer market, where USDT is swapped for M-PESA, is a common way in and out of crypto, and the timing is pointed: unlicensed crypto providers have until Wednesday, 4 November to comply with Kenya's new virtual asset law, which requires platforms to keep customer assets separate and hold enough of each coin to repay users. Two practical points: do not pay anyone on WhatsApp or Telegram who offers to "unlock" a withdrawal, and keep on an exchange only what you are actively trading.
Sources: Techweez · Tech-ish · TechTrends
