One Laptop, $6.3 Billion Gone: Binance Suffers Wor...

Summary

• – In a single Ethereum transaction, the attacker submitted _50 EIP-7702 authorizations_ targeting Binance’s main hot wallet known as _Binance 14_.
• – Within about 20 minutes, an estimated _$6.36 billion was drained and moved across 10 different blockchains._ – Analytics tracking linked _55 wallet addresses_ to the exploit, at one point holding $5.7 billion, including nearly $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and $900 million in Ethereum, plus Solana and dozens of other tokens.
• IMPACT IN PAKISTAN – Why This Matters for Local Investors* Pakistan is now among the top 10 countries for crypto adoption, with over 20 million users, and Binance is by far the most used platform for P2P trading.

AI Generated Summary

ISLAMABAD : The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has confirmed the largest theft in crypto history. On the night of Thursday, October 29, the exchange suffered a security breach with an estimated impact of _$6.3 billion_.

To understand the scale, this single hack is more than four times bigger than the previous record – the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025 – and equals more than Pakistan’s entire current IMF program.

*1. HOW IT HAPPENED – From Laptop to 10 Blockchains in 20 Minutes*

Binance’s first official finding states there was _no leak of wallet private keys._

According to the preliminary investigation released at 11 PM EST on Oct 29:

> “The security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.”

_Technical Breakdown:_
– The attacker compromised a DevOps engineer’s laptop, gaining access to Binance’s internal withdrawal service container.
– In a single Ethereum transaction, the attacker submitted _50 EIP-7702 authorizations_ targeting Binance’s main hot wallet known as _Binance 14_.
– This delegated control of the wallet to a malicious _Sweeper Contract_, funded earlier through crypto mixer Tornado Cash to hide the trail.
– Within about 20 minutes, an estimated _$6.36 billion was drained and moved across 10 different blockchains._
– Analytics tracking linked _55 wallet addresses_ to the exploit, at one point holding $5.7 billion, including nearly $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and $900 million in Ethereum, plus Solana and dozens of other tokens.