Factbox: Binance's $6.3B Heist & Crypto's Biggest Hacks Ranked
Crypto Heists: The Biggest Hacks in History
SINGAPORE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A security breach at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has resulted in an estimated $6.3 billion impact, the biggest crypto heist ever.
Binance said it had worked with partners to freeze the affected assets, with about $3 billion located so far. It gave no update on the status of the remaining $3.3 billion, though Binance co-founder Yi He said the company would cover "all hacking losses".
The crypto industry has suffered a series of thefts, prompting questions about the security of customer funds and investors to possibly rethink the risks of owning digital assets.
Here are some of the other major thefts to have plagued the industry since bitcoin was born in 2008.
Timeline of Major Crypto Heists
2025: Bybit Exchange Hack
Time period: February 2025
Company: Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit
What was stolen: Digital tokens worth $1.5 billion
What happened: The crypto was taken from a "cold wallet" - a digital wallet usually stored offline and so supposedly more secure - that was used for ether tokens.
2022: Ronin Network Breach
Time period: March 2022
Company: Ronin Network, a network that allows transfer of crypto coins across different blockchains
What was stolen: Roughly $540 million from a blockchain project linked to the popular online game Axie Infinity
What happened: Hackers stole some 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens.
2022: Wormhole DeFi Hack
Time period: February 2022
Company: Wormhole, a DeFi site
What was stolen: $320 million
What happened: Hackers making off with 120,000 digital tokens connected to the second-largest cryptocurrency, ether. The crypto arm of Chicago-based Jump Trading, which had the year before acquired the developer behind Wormhole, later replaced the funds.
2021: Poly Network Exploit
Time period: August 2021
Company: Poly Network, a platform that facilitates peer-to-peer token transactions
What was stolen: $610 million (Hackers behind the heist later returned nearly all of the stolen funds)
What happened: The hack underscored vulnerabilities in the burgeoning decentralised finance, or DeFi, sector, where users lend, borrow and save in digital tokens, bypassing the traditional gatekeepers of finance such as banks and exchanges.
2018: Coincheck Exchange Attack
Time period: January 2018
Company: Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck
What was stolen: $530 million
What happened: The thieves attacked one of Coincheck's "hot wallet" - a digital folder stored online - to drain the funds, drawing attention to security at exchanges.
South Korea's intelligence agency said at the time that a North Korean hacking group may have been behind the heist.
2011-2014: Mt. Gox Collapse
Time period: Between 2011 and 2014
Company: Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox
What was stolen: Bitcoin worth close to $500 million was stolen in one of the earliest and most high-profile crypto hacks.
What happened: Mt. Gox, which once handled 80% of the world's bitcoin trade, filed for bankruptcy in early 2014 after the hack was revealed, with some 24,000 customers losing access to their funds.
Reporting Credits
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Tom Wilson and Elizabeth Howcroft in London; Editing by Jamie Freed)
