Developing Story: Binance Has Been Hacked

A major Binance hack is taking place right now
The stolen total has been growing each 30minutes from $2b to $3.3b… and has now reached $5.5 billion
decrypt.co/382191/binan…

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— Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi.risky.biz) October 29, 2026 at 6:21 PM

Congrats to the cybercriminal who just stole from a money launderer. From what I can tell, they managed to get around $400 million out before Tether froze the wallets, and there was collateral damage of $600 million in forced liquidations from price spikes. That's a lot of "my apes are gone."

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— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) October 29, 2026 at 6:02 PM

It's looking like the biggest crypto hack in history

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— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) October 29, 2026 at 6:40 PM

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who is legally not allowed to have any managerial role with the company yet still has remarkable amounts of inside knowledge into its goings on, has tweeted that Tether and Circle have frozen around $1.8B
(he's just a shareholder, you see)

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— Molly White (@molly.wiki) October 29, 2026 at 5:52 PM

Just two weeks ago:

"Foreign actors used to need a back door to try to influence a president,"
"Trump is holding the front door open and inviting them in for a steak dinner."

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— WDEF News 12 (@wdefnews12.bsky.social) October 16, 2026 at 10:00 AM

More than half of the top holders listed as competing for seats at President Trump’s next meme coin dinner have used cryptocurrency exchanges that prohibit U.S. customers, indicating that many of the buyers are based overseas, according to a CBS News analysis.

The gala, set for Nov. 22 at the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, D.C., will seat the 185 largest holders of the $TRUMP meme coin, according to the website for Fight Fight Fight LLC, the company behind the coin. A public leaderboard for the event only lists the top 100 holders.

Mr. Trump is billed as the featured speaker alongside three yet-to-be-named “legends.” The top 29 holders will get upfront seating and a VIP reception with the president, the website says.

The upcoming dinner is the latest example of the unprecedented intermingling of business and politics during Mr. Trump’s second term…

A cryptocurrency exchange is a company, much like a stock brokerage, where customers trade dollars or other currencies for crypto. CIC Digital LLC, a Trump Organization affiliate, and another company, Fight Fight Fight, together own 80% of the total $TRUMP supply, according to the project’s website. The parent company of Fight Fight Fight, Celebration Cards LLC, uses Mr. Trump’s name and likeness under a licensing agreement, the website adds…

In 2023, Binance was forced to offload its U.S. customers after it pleaded guilty to federal charges that included failure to prevent money laundering on its platform and sanctions violations.

Its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, also pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program. (Mr. Trump granted a pardon to Zhao in October 2025, claiming the crypto billionaire was a victim of a political prosecution under President Biden)…

I posted about that pardon when it happened, but I don’t seem to have found a space to share this absolutely infuriating recent tongue bath from the Grey Lady [gift link]

“Democracy has been hailed as, like, the holy grail for the last couple hundred years, but democracies are inefficient,” said the crypto billionaire. “If you get a benevolent dictator, it’s actually extremely efficient."
Hmm, where have I heard this before?
www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/b…

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— Gil Durán (@gilduran.com) October 5, 2026 at 11:58 AM

One morning in June, the cryptocurrency mogul Changpeng Zhao pulled up to the St. Regis resort in Abu Dhabi in a white Nissan S.U.V. Mr. Zhao is the richest man in crypto, worth an estimated $114 billion, and he lives in a villa nearby, with nine bedrooms, four bodyguards, a chef and a yacht named Da Moon. But he also likes to play the part of a “normal dude,” as he often describes himself, and that day he had offered to give me a personal tour of the city. Outside the St. Regis, Mr. Zhao sat at the wheel of the Nissan, with his iPhone mounted on the windshield, like the world’s wealthiest Uber driver. “My Lamborghini,” he joked as I climbed in.

Mr. Zhao, to be clear, isn’t a normal dude. Not long ago, the U.S. authorities brought a criminal case against him for his management of Binance, a crypto exchange depicted in court papers as a haven for Russian money launderers, Iranian sanctions evaders and Islamic State terrorists. Mr. Zhao pleaded guilty and escaped with his fortune intact. After serving a four-month prison sentence, he returned to Abu Dhabi, still Binance’s majority shareholder and still the most powerful figure in the industry.

These days, Mr. Zhao, who is 49, moves through the world like a head of state, flying around Asia on his private jet to advise governments on crypto regulation; a stop in Islamabad or Manila is often followed by the announcement of a new regulatory breakthrough for Binance. At home, one of his two dogs is a Taigan, an elegant Central Asian breed, likened to the gazelle. It was a gift from the crypto-curious president of Kyrgyzstan, with whom he went skiing in February. “He actually wanted to give me a tent, like a full-sized tent,” Mr. Zhao said. “I said no to the tent, and then he insisted on the dog.”

Mr. Zhao’s most influential allies are a pair of powerful ruling families. One is the clan that runs the United Arab Emirates, which wants his help creating a technology powerhouse in the desert. The other is the Trumps. Last year, Binance forged a business relationship with World Liberty Financial, the crypto start-up founded by President Trump and his three sons. World Liberty generated $799 million for Mr. Trump last year — his single most lucrative asset, more remunerative than his real estate portfolio or his social media business. Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Zhao last October, a move widely criticized as a quid pro quo.

Known in the industry as “CZ,” Mr. Zhao often avoids reporters, but he met with me several times this year, eager to put a friendlier gloss on his career at Binance, which still hasn’t stanched the flow of dirty money. He is tall and thin, with short dark hair and a Binance tattoo on his forearm, and lacks the frat-bro swagger of many of his crypto peers. He comes across as polite and attentive, though his interests are almost comically narrow. This year, he self-published a memoir, “Freedom of Money,” in which he describes receiving an after-hours tour of the Louvre. The experience left him cold. The guide might as well have been “playing piano to a cow,” he wrote.

For years, his true calling has been what academics term “jurisdictional arbitrage” — moving from country to country in search of a legal framework pliable enough to accommodate his appetite for risk and growth. In Abu Dhabi, he may have found an ideal base of operations…

“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Here’s hoping this is the beginning!

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