The Binance hack keeps getting bigger. Hackers stole 18,270 bitcoin worth about $1.4 billion from the crypto exchange on Thursday — a haul that exceeds Tesla’s 11,509 BTC and is more than double El Salvador’s 7,820 BTC national reserve, CoinDesk reports.
The stolen bitcoin left Binance at about 4:20 p.m. ET on Thursday and represents just the BTC leg of a theft that CoinDesk and Binance put at roughly $6.3 billion across cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin illustration (Credits: CoinDesk)
Binance Hack: 18,270 Bitcoin Stolen in Thursday Attack
According to CoinDesk’s analysis, the coins fanned out across 19 wallets — seventeen received exactly 1,000 BTC each, while two others took about 833 BTC and 438 BTC. As of early Friday, none of the addresses had spent a single coin.
The numbers are staggering when stacked against corporate and national treasuries. At $78,500 per coin, the haul tops Tesla’s 11,509 BTC (worth about $903 million) and runs 2.3 times El Salvador’s reserve of roughly 7,820 BTC, which the country has been buying since September 2021. It even comes within 442 coins of SpaceX’s disclosed 18,712 BTC.
TRM Labs Links Binance Hack to North Korean Group
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the attack “with high confidence” to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking unit — the same group the FBI blamed for the $1.5 billion Bybit theft in February 2025. Binance has not itself identified the attacker.
Binance says about $3 billion of the roughly $6.3 billion stolen has been frozen onchain, and it has set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses. The exchange plans to publish updated proof-of-reserves results on Monday, November 2.
Also Read: Binance Uncovers Wider Breach in $6.3 Billion Exploit, Targets Sunday Withdrawal Restart
Also Read: Experts Divided Over Binance Hack Asset Freezes, Warn Recovery Is Another Matter
Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.
