Changpeng Zhao says Binance's $6.3bn hack is not the largest Bitcoin theft

Key points

• Blockchain investigators traced about $6.3bn in transfers from Binance wallets on 29 Oct 2026, including 18,270 BTC, and attributed the operation to North Korea's Tradertraitor group.
• Mt Gox's roughly 650,000 BTC shortfall would be worth $50.7bn at a $78,000 reference price, against $66.3bn for the original 850,000 BTC.

The reported $6.3bn Binance hack is the largest crypto theft by dollar value, but it is not the biggest Bitcoin theft, according to a Bitcoin.com News ranking of history's largest heists. The outlet compares incidents by the dollar value at the time and by the quantity of BTC taken, and the two measures produce very different hierarchies.

Investigators traced about $6.3bn in transfers across nearly a dozen blockchains after the 29 Oct 2026 incident, including 18,270 BTC, and attributed it to North Korea's Tradertraitor group. Binance pledged to cover customer balances from its emergency reserves and corporate resources, while partners reportedly froze about $3bn. The figures remain provisional.

Measured in Bitcoin at a fixed $78,000 reference price, Mt Gox's original 850,000 BTC shortfall would be worth $66.3bn, and the roughly 650,000 BTC left after an old wallet was found would be worth $50.7bn.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X that $6.3bn is the biggest in dollar terms but not in BTC terms, pointing to Mt Gox's 650,000 BTC. He also urged weighing the share of total Bitcoin supply affected, the number of users hit and the proportion of their assets lost, and said Binance would protect its users.

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