Ethereum upgrade helped attackers drain $2.5bn from Binance
A technical change designed to make crypto wallets smarter was used alongside 50 stolen signatures to bypass security at the world's largest exchange.
Key takeaways
- 1Hackers used a 2025 Ethereum wallet upgrade to drain $2.5bn from Binance
- 2The attacker obtained 50 signatures from Binance's own wallet to authorise the theft
- 3Ethereum's price fell 3.2 per cent to $2,246.46 following the report
An Ethereum technical upgrade contributed to the theft of $2.5bn from Binance, according to a report by CoinDesk on 30 October. The drain represents a significant portion of a wider $6bn loss recently suffered by the cryptocurrency exchange.
The attacker used a feature from a 2025 upgrade designed to make ordinary wallets smarter by giving them programmable functions. CoinDesk reported that the hacker armed the exploit with 50 signatures from Binance's own wallet to move the funds out of the exchange's control.
Ethereum remains the second-largest digital asset with a total market value of $274.5bn. YourKhabri data shows the price of the token fell 3.2 per cent to $2,246.46 on Friday following the reports of the technical vulnerability.
Developers are now investigating the 2025 permission settings to prevent further exploits of this nature. The industry is waiting for a formal response from Binance regarding the security of its remaining storage wallets and the recovery of the missing assets.
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Reported and edited by the YourKhabri desk under our editorial policy. Nothing here is investment advice.