By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 4 (Radarr Africa) – Binance has replenished 90 per cent of the roughly $6.3 billion in digital assets stolen in what is described as the largest cryptocurrency heist on record, and says it will cover the remaining 10 per cent, according to a TheStreet market report published on November 3.
TheStreet reported that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said users “did not suffer any loss”. It said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a unit linked to North Korea, and that North Korea had reportedly denied involvement.
Al Jazeera reported on October 30 that the exchange said about $6.3 billion had been stolen in a “security incident” that appeared to be the biggest crypto heist on record, surpassing the $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in 2025 by the Lazarus Group.
On the Thursday of the disclosure, Binance suspended all deposits and withdrawals and froze about $3 billion in funds, Al Jazeera reported. It noted that the web address of its own article cited a figure of $2.54 billion frozen, so the amounts may have changed or been reported differently.
An initial investigation suggested a hacker made unauthorised transactions after gaining access to an engineer’s compromised laptop, Al Jazeera reported. Binance said it would cover all losses, that user funds were safe and that it was working with law enforcement. It promised a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation was complete.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM assessed with high confidence that TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit linked to the Lazarus Group, carried out the attack, according to the same report. Ari Redbord, TRM’s global head of policy, called the theft “unprecedented”.
Bitcoin fell about 5 per cent on the news to below $77,000, Al Jazeera reported.
Investopedia, via Yahoo Finance, reported that bitcoin traded near $77,600 on Tuesday, up from an overnight low of about $76,400. Business Tech Africa said on November 3 that bitcoin was at about $76,710 and ether at about $2,249, after bitcoin hit a six-week low.
Sean Foley of Macquarie University warned that a loss of confidence in Binance could dampen crypto prices. He said the attack highlighted the risks of centralised exchanges, which might push some traders towards decentralised alternatives, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera cited TRM’s 2026 Crypto Crime Report, which said hackers stole $2.87 billion in nearly 150 incidents in 2025. Binance, founded in China by Zhao in 2017, has about $155 billion in assets under management, according to CoinMarketCap, the report said.
Business Tech Africa, in its November 3 summary, said bitcoin fell below $77,000, a six-week low, after a reported hack of the Binance exchange that it said stole about $6 billion in crypto. That is lower than the $6.3 billion cited by Al Jazeera and TheStreet, and Radarr Africa has used the higher figure reported by those two outlets.
The reported $6.3 billion loss is more than four times the $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in 2025, the previous record cited by Al Jazeera, and more than double the $2.87 billion that TRM says hackers stole across nearly 150 incidents in the whole of 2025. Both comparisons are Radarr Africa calculations from the reported figures.
The report also did not say whether deposits and withdrawals have resumed, or whether the frozen funds have been released.
