COINDESK · 2026-10-31 12:00 UTC

The $6.3 billion Binance hack paradox: Centralization made the hack possible, but also saved $3 billion

Binance suffered a $6.3 billion hack traced to a compromised engineer's laptop that accessed withdrawal infrastructure; approximately $3 billion was frozen onchain by stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle using administrative controls. The incident highlights a paradox: centralization enabled the hack but also prevented massive losses, challenging crypto's core assumption that blockchain transactions are irreversible and beyond central authority control. The hack raises questions about whether decentralized and centralized security models protect against different threats, suggesting the…

Loading the story on Tree News…