A suspected North Korean-linked attack on Binance has become the largest cryptocurrency theft reported to date, with about $6.4 billion in assets taken across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron. The incident unfolded just as Hyperliquid was celebrating a proposed partnership with the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.
Binance attack becomes crypto’s largest reported theft
The stolen assets were estimated at roughly $3.5 billion in ETH, $1.4 billion in BTC and $630 million on Tron, although the final accounting was still being completed. The scale is about four times the $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025.
Some of the funds were frozen after Tether and Circle used their ability to block transfers of their stablecoins. Together, the issuers immobilized approximately $2.39 billion, or 43% of the reported haul. Estimates put the amount still outside their control between $2.6 billion and $3.2 billion.
Binance initially said it was aware of reports of a potential security problem, described customer funds as safe and paused withdrawals on several networks. Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s former chief executive and largest shareholder, said the incident appeared to be a hack and expected users to be fully covered.
The exchange later said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses. That commitment means the exchange, rather than its customers, is positioned to absorb the reported shortfall.
According to Decrypt, blockchain investigator ZachXBT said the stolen Binance assets had been mixed with funds from a separate $388 million Bitget exploit. He suggested both incidents may involve the same North Korean hacking group. Binance pointed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which allowed unauthorized transactions to be submitted, and later identified additional points of breach.
Aave and other platforms react
The attack also triggered defensive action elsewhere in crypto markets. Aave froze every decentralized autonomous organization-operated V3 and V4 market, covering 292 reserves across 16 networks. The measure followed the deposit of $60 million in USDT by a wallet connected to the Binance exploiter, followed by the borrowing of 19,762 WETH valued at about $44.6 million within three minutes.
Aave’s intervention was precautionary. The concern was that stolen assets could be used as collateral for borrowing, potentially leaving the lending protocol with bad debt if the collateral later became inaccessible or worthless.
Polymarket also paused trading after users reported money leaving their accounts. Hudson Rock attributed that incident to a compromised script from DebugBear, a web-monitoring service, which was allegedly able to access logged-in trading sessions.
The Binance incident weighed on the wider market. The source report said more than $1.33 billion in positions were liquidated during the day as prices fell. Bitcoin slipped to about $77,500, while ETH traded near $2,235, SOL near $97 and BNB below $700 in the market snapshot published with the report.
Hyperliquid’s major announcement loses the spotlight
Before the hack dominated trading, Hyperliquid had received a major boost. Trade.xyz announced that Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, was investing in the business.
The proposed U.S. venue would offer regulated, round-the-clock perpetual futures based on Hyperliquid. The planned products would cover stocks, indexes, commodities, currencies and cryptocurrencies, with a separate exchange and clearing structure. The project remains subject to approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Investor Stanley Druckenmiller also joined the project. His family office had previously disclosed a $23 million position in Hyperliquid Strategies. ICE’s chief executive described Hyperliquid as larger than Nasdaq, while Druckenmiller publicly said he looked forward to using the proposed product.
HYPE rose as high as $97, gaining more than 20% at its peak, before retreating to $89 as the Binance-related selling spread. The report said it was later around $93 and still up 8% on the day. Hyperliquid also led on-chain protocols in daily revenue, generating $4.87 million amid the liquidations.
The contrasting developments put decentralized and centralized crypto venues in sharper focus. Hyperliquid could benefit from renewed attention to alternatives to centralized exchanges, but the broader security concerns also risk weighing on digital assets generally. The events underline how quickly a major exploit can overshadow positive developments elsewhere in the market.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 12:48 p.m. on November 1, 2026, showed BNB at $711.7068665596, up 0.93% over 24 hours but down 3.7% over seven days. Hyperliquid’s HYPE was $88.0108700686, down 0.25% over 24 hours and up 15.16% over seven days.
JUST was priced at $0.1367043148, down 0.62% in 24 hours and 3.07% over seven days. OpenLedger’s OPEN stood at $0.0976845525, up 2.83% over 24 hours and 3% over seven days. These figures are Moneyiar data and represent the stated time rather than the earlier market levels cited in the report.
