Binance Suffers $6.3B Hack; Hyperliquid Gains From ICE Investment
Hackers drained roughly $6.3 to $6.4 billion from Binance hot wallets across three blockchains, the largest known crypto theft on record. Binance has reserved over $6.34 billion of company funds to cover losses, and about $2.4 billion to $3 billion of the stolen assets has been frozen so far.
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Scale and Movement of the Funds
Hackers took an estimated $6.4 billion from Binance, according to Decrypt, while Crypto.news puts the figure at $6.3 billion, taken from the exchange's hot wallets used to process withdrawals. The discrepancy likely reflects differing accounting windows, since final tallies were still underway at the time of reporting. Decrypt said the funds were spread across Ethereum (about $3.5 billion), Bitcoin (about $1.4 billion) and Tron (about $630 million), making it roughly four times the $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025.
Freezes and Binance's Response
Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze USDT and USDC holdings tied to the theft, locking up about $2.39 billion combined, or 43% of the haul according to Decrypt. Binance said it has frozen approximately $3 billion connected to the attack with industry partners, a figure Crypto.news also reported. Aave froze its V3 and V4 markets on Ethereum as a precaution against stolen funds being used as collateral. Binance paused withdrawals on several networks and said user funds are safe; it later stated it had reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses.
Attribution and Breach Details
Blockchain analyst ZachXBT said the Binance funds were commingled with proceeds from a $388 million Bitget exploit, and he assessed that the same North Korea-linked group was likely responsible. Binance's first explanation pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. Its later update described additional points of breach and said an Ethereum account delegation feature was used to bypass its normal approval controls. The investigation is ongoing, and neither outlet treats the single-laptop explanation as complete.
Market Reaction
Bitcoin fell below $797,000, Ether dropped below $2,200 and BNB fell below $700. More than $1.33 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated on the day, according to Decrypt.
Hyperliquid's Institutional Milestone
Earlier on the same day, Trade.xyz announced that Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, is investing in it. The planned venue would offer round-the-clock perpetual futures on Hyperliquid across stocks, indices, commodities, currencies and crypto, pending CFTC approval. Stanley Druckenmiller also joined as an investor; his family office had disclosed a $23 million position in Hyperliquid Strategies earlier this year. HYPE reached $97 intraday, up more than 20%, before falling to $89 during the Binance selloff and recovering to about $93 by the following morning, per Decrypt.
Trust and Next Steps
Altcoin Pro co-founder Joni Zhuleku told Crypto.news that reimbursement alone is not sufficient, arguing that freezing funds differs from returning them and that the incident revives user concern about exchange custody four years after FTX. Decrypt noted that Hyperliquid may benefit as a decentralized alternative to centralized exchanges, while warning that broader market contagion from further exploits remains a risk.
Why It Matters
For Traders
Expect elevated volatility and liquidation risk across majors while Binance withdrawal status and frozen-fund recovery remain unresolved over the next few days.
For Investors
The incident renews scrutiny of centralized custody and may accelerate capital and institutional interest toward regulated, on-chain venues like Hyperliquid.
For Builders
The disclosed use of Ethereum account delegation to bypass approval controls is a concrete warning to audit delegated permissions and multi-party signing flows in custody systems.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.
