Binance customers withdrew more than $4.6 billion (£3.5 billion) from the cryptocurrency exchange after a cyberattack described by security experts as the largest digital coin theft ever.
The withdrawals followed the resumption of transactions in bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies on Sunday. Customers deposited just over $1 billion during the same period, leaving Binance with a net outflow of $3.64 billion.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said the value of the funds withdrawn represented 2.1% of its total assets, which it put at $171 billion. The platform has more than 300 million users.
The exchange said cybercriminals had stolen $6.3 billion in digital currency. About $3 billion of the assets had been frozen, meaning certain issuers were able to block transfers of their tokens.
Security experts have linked the attack to North Korea. The FBI said on Saturday that the group believed to be responsible, known as TraderTraitor, was converting most of the stolen funds into Ethereum in an attempt to conceal the trail.
TraderTraitor was also held responsible for a February 2025 attack on the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, which resulted in losses of $1.5 billion, according to the FBI.
Following the Binance attack, the FBI urged private-sector organisations to “block transactions with or derived from addresses TraderTraitor actors are using to launder these stolen assets.”
Binance has promised to cover the full losses from its own funds. By early Sunday morning, the company said it had covered about 95% of the affected amount.
“Our top priority right now is to ensure the environment is secure, after which users can withdraw their funds, and Binance can resume operations,” Binance co-founder Yi He said in a post on social media early on Monday.
