What happened?
According to The Defiant, the Binance exchange said it had set aside over $6.34 billion to cover losses from a large-scale hack. Of that amount, $5 billion is reportedly already held directly in the tokens affected by the attack. Withdrawals on the exchange remain suspended during the investigation and security review.
According to CoinDesk, the incident dates to October 30, 2026, and its scale (roughly $6.3 billion) makes it one of the largest cases in the history of crypto exchanges.
How did the attack unfold?
According to Decrypt, Binance CEO Richard Teng described the attack as a complex operation rather than a one-off event. He literally stated that it was not a single "one-click" step. Moreover, according to Decrypt, Binance found "additional points of breach," which suggests the attack vector was broader than initially appeared.
Decrypt also reports that approximately $3 billion was frozen. This is an important distinction: frozen funds are not the same as the exchange's reserve. The freeze applies to the stolen funds themselves, while the reserve of over $6.34 billion is capital Binance intends to use to cover the losses.
Why did the price of RUNE jump?
Cointelegraph noted that RUNE, the token of the THORChain protocol, rose 13 percent after the hack. THORChain is a decentralized protocol for swapping assets between different blockchains (cross-chain). In the past, according to Cointelegraph, North Korean hackers used it to move funds stolen from the Bybit and Bitget exchanges, which led to calls for the protocol to intervene in similar cases.
The connection between the movement in RUNE's price and this specific hack is a correlation in time described by Cointelegraph. Available sources do not confirm any attribution of blame to a specific group, nor that the funds stolen from Binance passed through THORChain. For now, that remains unverified.
What impact did it have on the broader market?
According to CoinDesk, the hack added to an already nervous market mood. CoinDesk mentions it in the context of a broader sell-off, in which the QQQ index (which tracks technology stocks) fell by more than 2 percent, aided by a drop in Intel shares and concerns about spending on artificial intelligence. The hack was therefore not the only factor, but one of several that shook the market that day.
Overview of the numbers
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated scale of the hack | ~$6.3 billion | Decrypt, CoinDesk |
| Binance's earmarked reserve | over $6.34 billion | The Defiant |
| Held directly in affected tokens | $5 billion | The Defiant |
| Frozen funds | ~$3 billion | Decrypt |
| Rise in RUNE price | +13% | Cointelegraph |
| Date of incident | Oct 30, 2026 | CoinDesk |
What we still don't know
Based on available sources, it is not certain exactly who is behind the attack, precisely how it unfolded, or what the final net difference is between the stolen amount and what will be recovered or covered by the reserve. Teng speaks of "additional points of breach," so the final scale may still be clarified. It is also not confirmed when Binance will resume withdrawals.
What to watch for in similar cases
With announcements of the "we have a reserve to cover losses" type, it is worth distinguishing three things: how much was stolen, how much was frozen or returned, and how much the exchange is backing with its own capital. A verifiable signal is usually whether the exchange publishes proof of reserves and whether and when it resumes withdrawals. These are checkable points against which the exchange's claims can be assessed over time.