The estimated theft of $6.3 billion reported Thursday by crypto exchange Binance is not the first time the industry has faced a major, unexpected incident in which large sums of customer assets are frozen, causing a rout of crypto stocks.
This may be reminiscent of crypto’s most turbulent days, like the collapse of FTX, although in that complete collapse, with an initial deficit of $8-8.9 billion, rival Binance’s own founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was blamed for the heist. Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in 2024 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The Binance hack has shaken crypto markets: Bitcoin (BTC), other digital assets and related stocks have sunk over the past 24 hours. The company has temporarily suspended customer withdrawals and outside investigators are racing to track down the stolen funds. The company said it managed to freeze 44% of the stolen funds with the help of stablecoin issuers and would “cover all losses” resulting from the incident.
As far as comparable hacks go, this most recent theft dominates the others in terms of scale. Here are four major crypto thefts you may not have heard of.
Nearly $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit in February 2025
Hackers linked to North Korea stole nearly $1.5 billion worth of ether from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. The attackers manipulated a transaction approval process, allowing them to redirect assets from a supposedly secure wallet.
$625 million on compromised Ronin network in March 2022
Hackers compromised the security infrastructure of Ronin Network, a blockchain connected to Axie Infinity, a then-popular online crypto game. The hackers stole around 173,600 ether and 25.5 million USDC tokens. Weeks later, U.S. authorities attributed the attack to North Korean hackers, known as the Lazarus Group.
$611 million recovered from Poly Network in August 2021
In 2021, an attacker exploited a vulnerability in Poly Network, a platform designed to transfer cryptocurrencies between different blockchains. In an unusual development, the attacker later returned almost all of the stolen assets, claiming he did so “for fun” and to expose a software vulnerability.
$3.5 billion lost by Chinese bitcoin mining pool LuBian in December 2020 (unconfirmed)
A crypto wallet linked to a little-known Chinese bitcoin mining pool called LuBian may have fallen victim to what would be the second largest crypto theft on record after the Binance breach.
LuBian apparently lost more than 127,426 BTC after hackers potentially exploited weaknesses in how the company generated its private keys, according to findings reported by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. The alleged theft was only identified in August last year.
Follow David Hollerith on X @DsHollers.
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