A record digital theft has triggered a major withdrawal of funds from Binance, with investors pulling $3.6bn from the cryptocurrency exchange as it works to recover from a $6.3bn hack. The platform has begun allowing withdrawals again after the incident, which struck customer accounts and is being treated as one of the most significant security failures ever recorded in the cryptocurrency sector.
The hack took place on Thursday and has been described as the largest heist in history. The scale of the breach has placed immediate pressure on Binance, one of the world’s best-known crypto trading venues, at a moment when confidence in digital asset platforms remains closely tied to their ability to protect client funds and maintain orderly access to deposits. The $3.6bn in withdrawals shows how quickly users can move capital when trust in an exchange is shaken.
Cybersecurity specialists have identified North Korea as the probable source of the attack. The attribution adds a geopolitical dimension to an already exceptional financial crime, because state-linked cyber activity has long been a concern for governments, exchanges and blockchain investigators. No further technical details about the method of the theft have been confirmed in the available information, and Binance’s priority remains the restoration of services after the disruption.
The incident is likely to intensify scrutiny of risk controls across large centralized crypto exchanges. For customers, the immediate issue is access to funds and confidence that withdrawals can continue safely. For the wider market, the theft underlines the concentration of assets on major platforms and the potential consequences when security systems fail at scale. Binance’s handling of withdrawals after the breach will remain central to assessing the damage from the record $6.3bn loss.