Bitcoin and Ethereum plunges after £4.7bn in cryptocurrency stolen during Binance hack

Bitcoin and Ethereum plunges after £4.7bn in cryptocurrency stolen during Binance hack Binance said that an initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which could have allowed an attacker to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions The prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum fell sharply after the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange was hacked. Binance said in a statement early on Friday that the estimated total impact sits at over $6 billion, in what could be the largest cryptocurrency hack ever. In a statement issued in the early hours of Friday, October 30, Binance said that an initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. This may have "allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions." It continued, "We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified." The crypto giant said the estimated total impact sits at around $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion). Binance said it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with about $3 billion frozen on-chain so far. It did not provide an update on the status of the remaining $3.3 billion. The exchange said it will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company's funds. "User funds are safe," Binance said. The heist has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin hit a six-week low and was last down 3% at $76,469.82, Reuters reports. Ethereum was down more than 3% at $2,185.83. Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. US President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025. Mr Zhao and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family’s crypto enterprises. Mr Zhao posted on X on Thursday that while he doesn't manage Binance anymore, "as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered." He was released from prison last year after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was the first person ever sentenced to prison time for violations of that law, which requires American financial institutions to know who their customers are, to monitor transactions and to file reports of suspicious activity. Prosecutors said no one had ever violated the regulations to the extent Mr Zhao did.