The crypto exchange said it has begun phased withdrawals after the record hack the FBI has blamed on North Korea. Binance said it has reopened its Bitcoin network in phase one of resuming withdrawals after a major hack of about $6.3 billion in funds. The crypto exchange had suspended user withdrawals after the attack on Thursday, which the FBI blamed on North Korean operatives. “First batch network now opened in phase one of withdrawals is $BTC bitcoin network,” Binance said on X.
US agency seeks private-sector help to block further money-laundering of stolen digital assets. The FBI said that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of about $6.3 billion in digital assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Thursday. The FBI said on Saturday in a news release that it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as “TraderTraitor,” which it has most recently observed converting stolen assets mostly into Ether (ETH). It expects these assets to be further converted, using DeFi and instant swap services, as the hackers move to more advanced laundering stages.
Less-liquid tokens make up the remaining shortfall as Binance continues buying replacement assets through market and over-the-counter trades. Binance said Saturday it had replenished 90% of the assets stolen in its $6.3 billion hack, up from 80% a day earlier, and remained on track to resume withdrawals Sunday. The exchange is using a combination of its corporate treasury, a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and a portion of its futures insurance fund, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “Binance will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not users,” the spokesperson said, adding that the insurance fund would remain above required risk management levels.
Strive CEO Matt Cole says the Binance hack has not changed his long-term case for Bitcoin, but cautions it is too early to call a market bottom. Bitcoin has held up better than expected following the $6.3 billion Binance hack, according to Strive CEO Matt Cole, who said the breach does not undermine the cryptocurrency’s long-term investment thesis. Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction on Friday, Cole said the breach had not changed his long-term investment case for Bitcoin. He compared the attack on Binance’s wallets to a bank robbery rather than a failure of Bitcoin’s network. Bitcoin traded near $77,400 at 4:00 pm on Saturday, about 4% below its price shortly before the attack began Thursday, according to CoinGecko data.
In typical Bitcoin style, the number one cryptocurrency turns 18 today, amid AI-driven security threats, quantum fears and the biggest exchange hack in crypto history. Eighteen years ago today, pseudonymous cypherpunk Satoshi Nakamoto posted the Bitcoin whitepaper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, to a cryptography mailing list. Created to bypass opaque institutions and remove the need for trust in financial transactions, Bitcoin (BTC) has been taking on the traditional financial system since its genesis block was mined on Jan. 3, 2009. Inscribed in that very first block was a message from Satoshi, quoting a headline from The Times: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” It captured the financial crisis backdrop against which Bitcoin was born.
Home invasions became the most common form of crypto wrench attacks worldwide during the first half of 2026, rising to 20 incidents from one. Raymond Christian Garcia and Isiah Angelo Garcia, both of Waller, Texas, were sentenced to 180 months and 186 months in prison, respectively, for their armed robbery of cryptocurrency and kidnapping of a family in Grant, Minnesota. The brothers were sentenced on Thursday before US District Judge Donovan W. Frank, according to a Friday news release. They had pleaded guilty in June. On Sept. 19, 2025, the brothers, who had traveled from Texas to Minnesota, kidnapped Victim 1 and his family in their home at gunpoint, court documents said. They zip‑tied the family at gunpoint and held them for more than nine hours, demanding access to Victim 1’s cryptocu…
Chainalysis has engaged world-class third-party experts to support a review of its security and strengthen its defenses. Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis said it was targeted in a cybersecurity incident, similar to those suffered recently by other platforms. “Based on the investigation to date, we have found no evidence of unauthorized access to investigation content, authentication credentials, or session tokens,” it said in a blog post on Friday. Some non-sensitive customer data was exposed. Chainalysis said it had engaged world-class third-party cybersecurity experts and was using large language models to support a review of its security and strengthen its defenses.
Some political and administration figures tried to make hay of the biggest-ever crypto heist. Soon after the $6.3 billion hack of Binance, the biggest in crypto history, some political and administration figures began offering opinions with a US election approaching on Nov. 3 and voting already having begun in many locations. President Donald Trump was asked at a news conference on Friday about the hack of Binance. “We don’t know. We’re looking at that, the hack with Binance. They’re saying they’re going to get it back, they’re saying they’re guaranteeing it,” he replied. The crypto exchange said in a post on X late Friday that it would cover any losses. “We want to be clear about our commitment: Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users.” It added that…
Attackers raced to convert stolen stablecoins into crypto that issuers could not freeze as industry players like Tether and Circle moved to immobilize billions of dollars in assets. Attackers behind Binance’s estimated $6.3 billion hack still control billions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrency despite efforts by token issuers to freeze the proceeds. The attack, the largest in crypto history, began at 8:04 pm UTC Thursday and the perpetrators, linked to the same North Korean hackers behind last month’s Bitget hack, immediately began converting assets. The game plan for the hackers was to convert the assets that could be frozen, like USDT and USDC, into ones that could not, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
The stablecoin issuer’s US Treasury holdings are comparable to those of major foreign holders, while its Bitcoin reserves were valued at $8.37 billion at the end of September. Tether reported $1.5 billion in third-quarter operating profit as its excess reserves nearly doubled to $7.95 billion, according to figures released alongside its latest attestation prepared by independent accounting firm BDO. The company held $191.5 billion in assets against $183.5 billion in liabilities at the end of September, leaving a reserve surplus of $7.95 billion, nearly double the $4.1 billion reported in June. Its assets included $132.4 billion in direct and indirect US Treasury bill holdings. That exposure is comparable to South Korea’s $134.2 billion in US government debt and exceeds the United Arab Emir…
Circle, Strategy and other crypto-linked stocks fell sharply Friday, a day after Binance disclosed a $6.3 billion security breach. Shares of publicly traded cryptocurrency companies fell sharply Friday, with Coinbase dropping more than 13% a day after reporting a decline in third-quarter revenue, as the industry dealt with Binance’s $6.3 billion hack. Other crypto-linked stocks also declined, with stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group (CRCL) falling more than 9% and Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (MSTR) dropping about 8%, according to Yahoo Finance data at the time of writing. Source: Yahoo Finance
Bitcoin faces mounting quantum security concerns as Ripple secures a US banking charter, USDC gains ground in Europe and VanEck adds BTC to a new ETF. The debate over quantum computing has raised serious questions about Bitcoin’s long-term security, but the economic consequences could emerge long before the technology seriously threatens the network. Muneeb Ali, founder of Bitcoin layer-2 project Stacks, believes quantum computing risks are already discouraging institutional investment, even as US spot Bitcoin ETFs have amassed more than $104 billion in net assets, according to BitBo data. He warns that BTC has only a few years to prepare for the transition to quantum-resistant security, a process that could take years given the network’s history of slow and contentious upgrades. For insti…
A recap of Cointelegraph’s live coverage of the Binance hack, including early breach reports and the exchange’s full reimbursement pledge. This article summarizes Cointelegraph’s coverage of the Binance hack as it unfolded. See the full timeline for detailed updates here. Hackers stole about $6.3 billion from Binance on Thursday, in what is now the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Industry partners have frozen roughly $3 billion in affected assets, while customers await the reopening of withdrawals. TRM Labs traced the first unauthorized transfers to around 8:05 pm UTC Thursday, with Binance wallets drained across multiple blockchains. The attackers targeted hot wallets, which exchanges keep connected to the internet to process withdrawals.
Bitcoin circled $77,000 as crypto markets navigated US stock-market downside, while the gold price fell to its lowest in a year. Bitcoin (BTC) stayed under pressure below $80,000 at Friday’s Wall Street open as AI fears returned to intensify a broader risk-asset rout. Key points:
A US fusion startup says it has turned mercury into gold. Could a potential increase in the gold supply strengthen Bitcoin’s claim to be a better form of digital gold? They say all that glitters is not gold, and that took on a completely different meaning this month when a US fusion startup claimed it had produced gold from mercury. Rather than chemical trickery, Marathon Fusion’s process relies on nuclear transmutation. Its research paper describes how high-energy neutrons from a deuterium-tritium fusion reaction can irradiate mercury-198, producing a radioactive isotope that decays into stable gold-197. So, if gold has what some are calling an “infinite mint bug,” what will happen to the centuries-old metal so revered for its scarcity? And what, if anything, could that mean for Bitcoin a…
Binance is working with law enforcement to recover $3 billion that is frozen, after setting aside more than $6.3 billion from the company’s funds to cover the shortfall. Binance is working with the FBI to help recover some of the funds stolen in the record $6.3 billion exploit, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Cointelegraph contacted the FBI for more details about the collaboration but had not received a response by the time of publication. The cryptocurrency exchange revealed its cooperation with law enforcement in a Friday X post, without specifying the agencies involved.
The exchange said it set aside more than $6.34 billion to cover losses and would include the assets in its next proof-of-reserves report. Binance said Friday that it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses from its hack, with $5 billion already in held in the same tokens stolen. “The $5 billion is held in the exact token assets that are required. These assets are in Binance custody,” a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph. Binance did not disclose when it acquired the assets.
Follow live updates as Binance says $6.3 billion in assets have been stolen in a major hack. Around $3 billion in stolen funds have been frozen. Oct. 30 at 11:07 am UTC Binance is buying altcoins in quantities matching those stolen in the hack as it prepares updated proof of reserves, co-CEO Yi He said. The purchases are being made through over-the-counter deals and on exchanges, she said.
Zcash Community Grants proposed redirecting about $124 million in existing and future funding toward mining rewards, but critics say the plan fails to address governance and accountability concerns. Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) has proposed redirecting about $46 million in Zcash tokens from its treasury to future block rewards, but industry figures criticized the move, demanding greater accountability for the fund. On Thursday, ZCG proposed transferring 36,200 ZEC from its roughly 91,500-ZEC treasury to the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), which reserves coins for future mining rewards. If approved, the committee would retain about 55,200 ZEC, worth about $70 million at the time of writing. The group also proposed forgoing about 62,000 ZEC ($78.5 million) in future allocations and…
Bitcoin held above $76,000 after a $6.3 billion Binance hack and a tech-stock sell-off, as momentum indicators pointed to a possible rebound. Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $77,000 on Friday as crypto market liquidations passed $1.5 billion over 24 hours. Key points:
