How a $6.3 billion Binance heist unfolded in 20 minutes

aljazeera.net (Arabic) —

Hackers stole $6.3 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Binance in 20 minutes on October 29, 2026, marking the largest digital heist in history by exploiting an internal signing system vulnerability rather than breaking blockchain encryption. The attack targeted Binance's hot wallet "Binance 14" using the EIP-7702 standard, which allows wallets to delegate control to smart contracts. The hacker sent 50 sequential delegations, with one accepted, linking the wallet to a malicious "Sweeper" contract that automatically drained assets across 11 hot wallets on multiple networks. Security firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis suspect North Korea's Lazarus Group affiliate "TraderTraitor" based on attack pattern similarities. Stablecoin issuers froze about $3 billion, but $2.4 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum remains unrecoverable due to their decentralized nature. Binance pledged to cover losses through its secure asset fund.


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