NEW DELHI — At 1:35 am IST on October 30, while India slept, Binance was being drained.
In about 20 minutes, attackers moved roughly $6.36 billion out of Binance's hot wallets across 10 blockchains — Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, USDC, BNB, TRON and 57 other tokens — in what TRM Labs and Chainalysis say is the largest crypto theft ever, four times the $1.5 billion Bybit hack of February 2025.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed it with high confidence to TraderTraitor, the North Korean hacking group also known as Lazarus. The method was not breaking cryptography. It was human error. Binance said a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer let the attacker access an internal service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions. No private keys leaked, the exchange said, but it later found “additional points of breach.”
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Tether froze $971 million to $1.56 billion in USDT, Circle froze $823 million in USDC. About $3 billion was frozen on-chain. The attacker still holds 420,000 ETH and 18,270 BTC, about $2.4 billion beyond any issuer's freeze.
For India's estimated 1 crore+ Binance users, panic was immediate. Bitcoin fell to $77,000, $1.5 billion in long positions liquidated overnight. Binance suspended withdrawals. Indian exchange CoinDCX moved futures to "Reduce-Only" mode, halting new trades as it sources liquidity from Binance.
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said Binance will cover all losses — $6.34 billion reserved, $5 billion already held in exact tokens stolen, rest being bought. Deposits kept working. Withdrawals restarted in phased manner on Nov 1 — 06:00 GMT to 15:30 GMT, $4.65 billion withdrawn, $1.01 billion deposited, net outflow 2.1% of assets. Proof-of-Reserves snapshot promised by Nov 2. Full backing confirmed for BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, but 5% shortfall remains in less-liquid altcoins.
The hack comes a day after Enforcement Directorate's Bengaluru unit searched four premises in Bengaluru and Madhya Pradesh on Oct 27 over more than Rs 5,000 crore in unauthorised cross-border crypto transfers routed via Binance and Bybit. ED named RPFAS Technologies, which runs Mudrex and http://Saber.money, for buying and selling crypto on foreign platforms including Binance and Bybit, estimating FEMA violations at Rs 4,600 crore via shell entities in tax havens and massive OTC deals. ED made no allegation against Binance itself, but the timing hurts trust.
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Binance is FIU-IND registered since May 2024 after paying Rs 18.82 crore penalty, but FIU registration is anti-money laundering compliance, not deposit insurance. Finance Ministry has warned there is no regulatory recourse for crypto losses.
Analytically, this exposes crypto's centralisation paradox. A decentralised ecosystem depends on one centralised exchange for liquidity. One compromised laptop wipes out $6.3 billion. For Indian regulators pushing for crypto bill, it strengthens case for stricter custody rules, mandatory cold wallet ratios, and separation of DevOps from signing infrastructure.
For users: don't panic-sell inside app — sale is taxable 30% plus cess and doesn't get money out. Ignore Telegram "recovery agents." Only official Binance app.
*Tags:* #Binance #CryptoHack #TraderTraitor #NorthKorea #SAFU #ED #FEMA #Mudrex #Bitcoin #CryptoFraud