Binance and Polymarket Lose Billions in Massive Cyberattacks
Binance and Polymarket suffered multi-billion-dollar hacks on October 30, with Binance losing $6.3 billion in the largest cryptocurrency heist in history.
Two major cryptocurrency platforms suffered massive security breaches on October 30, 2026, triggering a sharp decline in global markets. Binance lost $6.3 billion in the largest heist in cryptocurrency history after hackers compromised a DevOps engineer's laptop to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Cybersecurity researchers and TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group.
Binance responded by freezing $2.54 billion in assets and temporarily suspending deposits and withdrawals for security checks. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle assisted by freezing approximately $3 billion of the stolen assets. Co-CEO Richard Teng and founder Changpeng Zhao confirmed the company will cover all user losses using the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and other company reserves.
Simultaneously, Polymarket suspended trading after a breach involving the third-party tool DebugBear resulted in the theft of an estimated $2.65 billion to $2.7 billion. Polymarket notified British authorities, as evidence suggested the attack originated in the United Kingdom, and pledged to compensate verified losses.
The combined attacks caused Bitcoin to fall below $80,000 and led to significant losses for Binance Coin (BNB). The liquidity crisis extended to other regions, forcing Indian exchanges like CoinDCX to restrict futures trading due to their reliance on Binance.
