Binance (Credits: CoinDesk)
A suspected security breach at Binance has wiped out roughly $6.3 billion in crypto assets — potentially the biggest crypto heist ever — sending Bitcoin and Ether tumbling. Standard Chartered warns the pain may not be over.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said the breach — which it attributed to the compromise of an engineer’s laptop — had an estimated $6.3 billion impact, surpassing the record $1.5 billion hack at Bybit in 2025 that was linked to North Korea. The exchange said it worked with partners to freeze the affected assets, with about $3 billion located so far. Chainalysis researchers confirmed at least $5.912 billion was stolen across multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Ripple and several Layer 2 networks.
Binance Hack Price Impact: Bitcoin Hits Six-Week Low
The news sent markets sharply lower. Bitcoin fell more than 3% over 24 hours, hitting a six-week low around $76,000 before stabilizing near $77,400 on Friday morning. Ether dropped over 3% to around $2,185, while BNB fell 8% and DeFi tokens including AAVE and UNI posted double-digit losses.
Total market-wide liquidations hit $1.5 billion, with long positions bearing most of the damage — $468 million in Bitcoin and $358 million in Ether. Crypto stocks fell too: Coinbase slid 4.8% and Strategy dropped nearly 6% in extended trading.
Standard Chartered: More Pain Before a New Base for Crypto
Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT linked to the potential Binance hack. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick said in an email: “I suspect the negative price action still has some way to go. Only after assets are unfrozen and more detail of the hack emerges will we find a new base.”
Kendrick added that investors should eventually rotate toward decentralized exchanges, arguing that the incident could accelerate a structural shift away from centralized platforms — while keeping his $100 price target for Uniswap’s UNI token by 2030.
Also Read: Binance Hack Drained Wallets Backing Customer Assets, Reserve Data Shows and North Korea’s Lazarus Group Likely Behind Binance Hack, Blockchain Sleuths Say
Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.
