$6.3 billion in crypto stolen from Binance in the biggest cyberattack in history

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, has fallen victim to an unprecedented cyberattack. According to initial estimates, cryptocurrency worth about 6.3 billion US dollars was stolen in the attack. International technology media say it is the biggest theft in the history of the crypto world.

According to a New York Times report, the major security breach on the platform took place the day before yesterday. Hackers exploited a flaw in the system and illegally moved out a large sum of funds. However, with the cooperation of blockchain partners and other organisations, it was possible to freeze or block a large part of it immediately. Major stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle took quick action and blocked more than 2.5 billion dollars on-chain.

After the incident, Binance announced a temporary suspension of all deposits and withdrawals on its platform. Reassuring users, however, the company said it is giving the highest priority to protecting customers’ funds and that all compensation will be paid. Security analysts’ initial assumption is that the attack may have begun with the hacking of a development engineer’s laptop or device.

News of the huge theft has also affected the global crypto market. Right after the incident, the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance’s own token BNB fell significantly. Earlier, the record for the biggest theft in crypto history was the roughly 1.5 billion dollars stolen from the Bybit platform, which this new attack has far surpassed.