The Binance hack that unfolded on October 29, 2026, could become the largest theft ever recorded against a crypto exchange. On-chain trackers estimate that up to $5.8 billion left Binance-lin
The Binance hack that unfolded on October 29, 2026, could become the largest theft ever recorded against a crypto exchange. On-chain trackers estimate that up to $5.8 billion left Binance-linked Ethereum wallets, with about $3.3 billion of that moving in a roughly 40-minute window. Binance says it is investigating, and stablecoin issuers have already frozen more than $2.36 billion, Cointelegraph reported.
Most gross estimates, including the Wall Street Journal’s reported figure of at least $1.7 billion, put this incident ahead of the $1.5 billion Bybit theft of February 2025, previously the largest confirmed crypto heist. The net loss after freezes may be lower, around $1 billion by one outside estimate. The episode tests how much damage stablecoin freezes can contain when an exchange is hit at this scale.
The headline figure is an estimate, not a confirmed loss. Coinbase’s Conor Grogan put total outflows at up to $5.8 billion, while analyst Spreek traced about $3.55 billion into a single unlabeled attacker wallet, according to The Block. Arkham Intelligence tagged a cluster of wallets as “binance-hacker-1029” holding roughly $5.84 billion. Cointelegraph noted that this figure reflects the wallets’ reported holdings rather than a confirmed amount of stolen funds.
The setup started a day early. On October 28, the attacker’s address received 0.1 ETH from Tornado Cash. At 20:20:59 UTC on October 29, an EIP-7702 transaction linked the “Binance 14” hot wallet to a contract the attacker had deployed, CryptoTicker reported.
About three minutes later, at 20:24 UTC, the wallet was emptied in one transaction: 167,464 ETH plus 63 other tokens, including 1.615 billion USDT. FinanceFeeds counted about $3.3 billion leaving two Binance hot wallets between 20:24 and 21:04 UTC. Etherscan labeled the addresses involved “Binance Hot Wallet Exploiter.”
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tether had frozen more than 1.567 billion USDT. Lookonchain’s tally, cited by TechFlow, came to about 1.58 billion USDT and 823 million USDC, roughly $2.41 billion or about 40% of the assets involved. World Liberty Financial froze around $27 million in its USD1 stablecoin.
Issuers can’t freeze native coins, though. About 195,000 ETH and roughly 16,700 BTC were outside the freezes, Coindoo noted.
Minutes before the drain, the attacker linked a Binance hot wallet to a contract they had deployed.
The final number is the biggest open question. Estimates vary widely depending on who is counting and what they count.
Binance’s public messaging has shifted during the incident. Its statement said teams were “aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating,” said user funds were “completely safe” and warned of scams, BleepingComputer reported. According to FinanceFeeds, that wording was edited within 13 minutes, moving from “not confirmed” to “completely safe.”
Binance also hasn’t said whether it will tap its SAFU emergency fund, created in 2018.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X that it “does look like a hack on Binance.” He thanked Tether and Circle for their freezes and said that, as a shareholder, he expects all user funds to be fully covered. Replying to 0xngmi’s estimate, he said the loss “may be slightly higher” than $1 billion but will be covered.
Markets were falling while the story spread. About $628 million in positions were liquidated within an hour, per Tech Startups. The sources do not establish how much of the move was driven by the hack itself. Among the assets below, BNB showed the steepest 24-hour decline.
Asset Price (USD) 24h change Bitcoin (BTC) $78,736 -2.92% Ethereum (ETH) $2,264.04 -3.81% BNB $704.32 -6.66% XRP $1.24 -6.33% Solana (SOL) $96.60 -5.43%Prices from CoinGecko as of 23:03 UTC on October 29, 2026. The 24-hour changes cover a period that began before the outflows. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index read 51 (Neutral) for October 29. It is a daily reading and may not fully capture events late in the day.
About $628 million in positions were liquidated within an hour as markets fell.
Much is still unknown, and early figures have already moved. If the net loss lands near $1 billion, it would be about 0.69% of the custodied assets cited by 0xngmi. That number is an outside estimate, though, and no official loss figure from Binance appears in the reporting so far.
The episode is a reminder that funds held on any exchange carry custody risk, including the risk of hot wallet exploits like this one. Stablecoin issuers were able to freeze part of the stolen assets. Native ETH and BTC have no equivalent issuer backstop.
Scams often follow big hacks, and Binance itself warned users about them. Watch for fake “support” messages, refund offers and recovery services. Treat any request for a seed phrase or password as a red flag.
Billions of dollars left Binance’s hot wallets on October 29, but the final loss could still land well below the $5.8 billion headline once freezes are counted. Watch for an official loss figure, any SAFU announcement and where the unfrozen ETH and BTC move next.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile; always do your own research before investing.
