Blockchain analysis firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs have linked yesterday's $6.3 billion Binance hacking incident to an organization named TraderTraitor, which is associated with North Korea. If this is confirmed, it would become the largest cryptocurrency hacking incident on record.

Chainalysis's own assessment set the total amount at $6.4 billion. The company stated that the funds began to flow out of the hot wallets of Binance around 4:20 p.m. Eastern Time on October 29, involving multiple blockchains.

The company stated that the attackers used an operational wallet funded by Tornado Cash to submit a signature authorization, which allowed a hot wallet identified as Binance to execute the code deployed by the attackers.

Subsequently, the attacker transferred the assets to an address under their control. Binance indicates that preliminary investigations point to an intruded engineer's laptop, through which the attacker obtained access to a service container and carried out unauthorized withdrawals.

The exchange stated that currently, there is no evidence of any wallet private keys being leaked.

It is reported that attackers attempted to transfer funds before the freezing measures were implemented by converting stablecoins into Ethereum and other assets that the issuers could not freeze. Chainalysis indicates that the attackers converted $325 million in stablecoins into $285 million in ETH within about 20 minutes, and then sent the remaining $175 million to a transit wallet. The company stated that the freezing action began around 5:14 p.m. Eastern Time in the United States.

The market reacts to hacker incidents.

Bitcoin tumbled to $76,000 in early trading on Friday before trading around $77,400 later on. Other cryptocurrencies also fell accordingly. The total liquidation amount in the crypto market reached $1.5 billion, of which Bitcoin accounted for $468 million and Ethereum accounted for $358 million.

Long positions – that is, bets on rising prices – bore the majority of the losses. This selling spree also coincided with another incident involving the decentralized gambling platform Polymarket; the platform suspended international transactions after hackers stole over $2.6 million from users' accounts.

Binance On Thursday, it was reported that this security incident affected assets worth approximately $6.3 billion, exceeding the $1.5 billion hacker attack that Bybit encountered in 2025; the latter attack was attributed to North Korean hackers. Former CEO Zhao Changpeng wrote on X: "It indeed looks like a hacker attack." Zhao Changpeng no longer manages the exchange but remains an important shareholder.

Stablecoin issuers have also taken measures to control the spillover effects. Tether, the CEO of Paolo Ardoino, stated that the company has frozen over $1.567 billion in USDT. Protecting the industry and its partners is the company's top priority.

Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the company has, in cooperation with law enforcement authorities, frozen over $800 million of USDC. CEO of First Digital Vincent Chok indicated that the FDUSD stolen in this attack has been frozen. Binance mentioned that the total amount of assets frozen on the blockchain is approximately $3 billion.

Binance claims to have sufficient funds to cover this incident.

Binance indicates that the company has reserved over $6.34 billion in corporate funds to cover this incident. Approximately $5 billion of this reserve is held in similarly affected token assets, while the remainder was acquired through market and over-the-counter trading channels.

The exchange stated that the assets that have been frozen and protected still need to be verified, and they plan to release an updated reserve certificate.

Reuters cited an informed source as reporting that Binance is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Secret Service.

Bitcoin may still have further room to decline.

Chase Bank's Global Digital Assets Research Director Geoffrey Kendrick wrote in an email to CoinDesk that the negative price trend may continue for some time. He stated that after the assets are unfrozen and more details about the hackers are disclosed, the market will form a new bottom.

Kendrick believes that this incident may accelerate the shift of funds towards decentralized exchanges. Chainalysis also warns that there are people impersonating the company to carry out fraud, including scammers offering services for fund recovery and recruitment.

Victims should be cautious of any unsolicited offers to recover funds and obtain updates through official channels.

As of press time, the trading price of Bitcoin is close to $76,700.