Binance confirms advanced EIP-7702 exploits and compromised DevOps laptop in record-breaking exchange breach
Binance has confirmed that a catastrophic security breach resulting in billions in digital asset outflows across multiple blockchains—involved attackers leveraging a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop to access…
Binance has confirmed that a catastrophic security breach resulting in billions in digital asset outflows across multiple blockchains—involved attackers leveraging a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop to access internal service containers.
According to the US blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, it is suspected that North Korean hackers were behind a $6.3 billion raid on crypto.
According to preliminary forensic findings, the unauthorized access allowed bad actors to manipulate operational workflows and submit malicious transactions, notably exploiting Ethereum's EIP-7702 authorization standard.
By submitting pre-signed authorization payloads via compromised channels, the attackers temporarily forced primary Ethereum hot wallets to run malicious smart contract code, enabling the sweeping extraction of massive asset reserves.
Exchange leadership, including co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Yi He, confirmed that all user losses will be fully covered using company reserves and the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU).
Meanwhile, swift coordination with major stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle successfully froze billions in stolen funds, though tracking and recovery operations across multi-chain ecosystems remain ongoing.
An attacker moved approximately $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes," TRM Labs said in a blog post on its website.
The record-shattering hack cast a huge impact on industry. After the breach, Bitcoin dropped over 3 percent to a six-week low of $76,368 with Ether down over 3 percent to a two-month low of 2,178 and BNB is down 5% to $709.70.
Coinbase Global fell 4.8%, and Strategy (bitcoin buyer) fell nearly 6% in extended US trading. Analysts note this incident will prompt investors to re-evaluate the safety of centralized exchanges, counterparty risks, and overall liquidity/solvency risks.
The hack set a new record in the crypto industry, far surpassing the previous record-setting $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025.
