Chainalysis reported a hacker used sophisticated methods to access customer data from its systems. The breach involved names and email addresses from Chainalysis customers.
The same day, October 29, 2026, a massive Binance hack occurred. Hackers stole $6.3 billion from the exchange's hot wallets across multiple blockchains. The attack lasted about 20 minutes.
Tron suffered the worst damage that day. Attackers pulled 612.7 million USDT and 46.4 million TRX from Binance's hot wallets on the Tron network.
The attackers needed to move their money quickly. They used SunSwap, a decentralized exchange on Tron, to trade about 234 million USDT for approximately 638 million TRX. This swap was strategic.
USDT is a stablecoin issued by Tether, and Tether can freeze tokens in specific addresses. TRX, however, has no central issuer that can freeze it. Once converted from USDT to TRX, the stolen funds became much harder to recover.
The money movement continued on October 30. Whale Alert flagged that 120 million TRX moved to an unknown wallet. This came from a cluster of wallets tied to the attackers. One address held 120 million TRX, and another held about 158.2 million TRX.
Investigators describe the ongoing transfers as peel-chain operations. The attackers break large amounts into smaller chunks that look unremarkable. This makes the full sum harder to track and easier to cash out in pieces.
Chainalysis identified the hackers as the North Korean group TraderTraitor. This group has been linked to previous large-scale crypto exploits. Binance's investigation points to a compromised DevOps laptop as the likely entry point for the attack.
Binance has committed to covering all losses. The exchange set aside more than $6.34 billion to absorb the damage. However, significant portions of the stolen assets remain unrecovered. The TRX portion, in particular, continues to move through the blockchain.
The breach exposed a critical weakness in crypto recovery efforts. Stablecoins like USDT can be frozen because they have issuing companies with control mechanisms. Native tokens like TRX operate without central control, making recovery dependent on tracing, cooperation, and catching withdrawals when they attempt to exit the system.
Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals from impacted wallets. The exchange continues investigating the breach and working to prevent similar attacks in the future. The incident highlights ongoing security challenges in the crypto industry.