Hackers Drained $6.3 Billion From Binance in Record Crypto Heist

Hackers stole $6.3 billion in digital coins from Binance last week, the biggest crypto heist on record, according to The New York Times. The FBI is publicly blaming North Korea's TraderTraitor unit for the breach at the world's largest crypto exchange.

Binance says it will cover every loss, and NBC News reports the exchange has already replaced 90% of the stolen funds. Whether that's enough to keep customers from leaving is now the central question.

How much money has left Binance?

Since withdrawals reopened Sunday, users have pulled about $4.65 billion and deposited $1.01 billion, for a net outflow of $3.64 billion. Most of that left in the first few hours after the gates opened, a sign that a large share of customers wanted out the moment they could move.

Binance is playing down the exodus. The company says the $3.64 billion net outflow equals just 2.1% of the $171 billion it manages, and it claims activity has since stabilized.

The raw numbers tell a split story. A 2.1% drawdown is survivable for a platform of Binance's scale. But the speed of the first-hours outflow shows how fast confidence drained once users got their chance to act.

Who does the FBI say did it?

The FBI has tied the Binance hack to TraderTraitor, the North Korean hacking unit already linked to a string of crypto thefts. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis adds a new wrinkle: the attackers may have used AI to speed things up during the operation.

That detail matters beyond this single case. If state-linked hackers are augmenting attacks with AI tools, the tempo and sophistication of future heists could rise — and exchanges holding billions in customer assets become the natural target list.

Will users get their money back?

Binance has promised to make all affected users whole, and by NBC News' count it has already restored 90% of the stolen funds. That replacement rate, achieved within roughly a week of the breach, is the exchange's strongest card as it fights to stop the outflows.

Co-founder Changpeng Zhao framed the recovery as a loyalty test. "Trust isn't earned by what you say in good times. It's earned by what you do in hard times," Zhao posted on X on Sunday.

What happens next?

The next few weeks will show whether Binance's balance sheet talk holds up against user behavior. A stabilized net flow would suggest the 90% reimbursement and Zhao's public stance bought time. Continued outflows near the early pace would put real pressure on the exchange's $171 billion asset base.

The record size of the theft — $6.3 billion, dwarfing every prior crypto heist — also guarantees regulatory attention. An FBI attribution to a North Korean state unit turns a corporate security failure into a national-security story, and that scrutiny won't end when the last stolen dollar is replaced.