Binance hack: “Reimbursement alone” is not enough, says Altcoin Pro co-founder

On October 29, 2026, hackers siphoned $6.3 billion from the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, marking what blockchain analysts call the largest digital asset heist in history and potentially the single largest known theft of any kind. 

In response to the massive cyber breach, Binance immediately suspended all user deposits and withdrawals. Both TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the attack with “high confidence” to TraderTraitor (also known as the Lazarus Group), an elite state-sponsored hacking unit linked to North Korea.

Joni Zhuleku, co-founder and Chief Research Officer at Altcoin Pro, in an exclusive interview with Crypto.News shares his views and insights about this mega crypto heist.

Tell us about your professional journey to founding Altcoin Pro.

My background is actually in medicine. I pursued medical school before pivoting into clinical research, so crypto was not the career path I originally imagined for myself. It started as a hobby in 2017, but the more I learned, the more passionate I became about the technology and its potential.

In 2021, we took a leap of faith and started Blockchain Insight Group, turning that passion into a business. Along the way, I became deeply involved in the Cosmos ecosystem and built a reputation within the community. From 2023 to 2024, I worked at Atom Accelerator DAO, a grants and venture capital focused organization supporting Cosmos. My work ranged from oversight to supporting the ecosystem’s development and expansion. We worked alongside the Interchain Foundation and developers, and helped organize and fund events such as Cosmoverse.

In late 2024, we partnered with Bull Runners to form Altcoin Pro. We launched a community on Skool that became one of its top 10 fastest growing communities and received recognition through the Skool Games.

Today, we also have an accelerator program with one to one mentorship. We help people get onboarded, understand the tools available to them, and learn how to navigate the crypto markets. Alongside that, we provide research, frequent updates and ongoing support. For me, it has been a journey from being curious about crypto to helping others understand it and participate with more confidence and a clearer understanding of the risks.

Tell us about the details of the $6.3 billion Binance heist.

Around $6.3 billion in crypto was reportedly taken from Binance’s hot wallets, which are the wallets used to process withdrawals. The attack involved multiple blockchains and is being reported as the largest crypto theft on record.

Binance initially pointed to a compromised engineer’s laptop, but its later update described a more complex attack involving additional breach points. It also said an Ethereum account delegation feature was used to bypass its normal approval controls. The investigation is still underway, so I would be careful about reducing this to one employee or one technical flaw.

Binance says approximately $3 billion connected to the attack has been frozen with industry partners, and it has committed to covering the losses using its own resources. Freezing funds is an important step, but it is not the same as recovering and returning them.

What is your first reaction to this news?

Honestly? Not again. We’re coming up on almost exactly four years since the FTX collapse, and once again people are questioning whether they can trust the platforms holding their crypto. These are different situations, but that feeling of uncertainty is familiar.

It’s very frustrating. We’ve made so much progress as an industry, but incidents like this damage the trust that takes years to build. My first concern is the users, followed by understanding what happened and what needs to change.

Will Binance users get their funds back?

My understanding, based on Binance’s public commitment, is that users will be made whole. Binance says it has reserved more than $6.34 billion in company resources to cover the losses, and approximately $3 billion connected to the attack has been frozen with industry partners.

That is reassuring, but freezing stolen funds and returning them are different things. The next step is delivering on that commitment and restoring safe access to withdrawals. That’s what customers will judge them on.

What kind of security flaws allowed this heist to happen?

We don’t have the complete picture yet. Binance initially pointed to a compromised engineer’s laptop, but its later update described additional breach points and a way of bypassing normal transaction approval controls. Binance has also said it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak.

That distinction matters. An attacker does not necessarily need to steal the key if they can compromise the systems that authorize activity. What concerns me is how that access could turn into an event of this scale. We need to understand not just how attackers got in, but why the safeguards behind that first line of defense did not contain the damage.

Could it be an insider’s job?

I’m skeptical by nature, and I think it’s reasonable to ask difficult questions after something this large. But skepticism is not evidence, and I’m not going to put on a tinfoil hat and accuse someone without facts.

A compromised employee device does not mean the employee knowingly participated. Blockchain analytics firms have attributed the attack to North Korean actors. We still need the investigation to establish exactly how access was obtained and whether anyone inside knowingly helped.

How can crypto exchanges protect themselves against this type of occurrence?

There isn’t one magic fix. They need to harden the entire operation, from employee devices and access permissions to wallet infrastructure and transaction approvals. Social engineering has to be treated as a core security threat, not just something covered in an annual training session.

You can’t assume every attempt will be prevented. The systems need to be designed so that even if someone is tricked or a device is compromised, the attacker cannot move billions. Independent approvals, limits on transfers and automatic stops for unusual activity are all part of that. Exchanges also need to limit how much is exposed in operational wallets and rehearse their response to a breach. We need higher standards across the industry.

How will this impact the crypto market?

The market has already sold off, but I think the loss of trust is the most damaging component. Prices can recover faster than people’s confidence in the companies holding their assets.

Binance making users whole would help, but reimbursement alone does not answer the security questions. How openly they explain the incident, how safely they restore withdrawals and what they change afterward will matter. This is a test of confidence in the infrastructure, not just a reaction to a headline.

It is also important to separate an exchange breach from the underlying blockchains. This does not mean Bitcoin itself was hacked, but it does expose serious risks in the systems people use to hold and access their crypto.

Anything else you would like to add?

The scale of North Korea’s involvement in crypto theft is staggering. TRM estimates that North Korean actors account for around 85% of the value stolen in crypto hacks this year, with this incident making up a large part of that total. We’re dealing with sophisticated, persistent attackers, and our security standards need to reflect that.

We all need to become more security conscious, from exchanges down to individual users. An exchange introduces company and custody risk. Self-custody removes some of that dependence, but puts responsibility for keys, backups and transaction safety on the individual. Neither is automatically risk free.

People should also watch for fake support messages and recovery scams after an incident like this. Never share your recovery phrase, and verify updates through official channels. It’s frustrating to keep having this conversation, but we need to turn that frustration into better practices rather than accept these losses as normal.

How can people reach you?

People can find us at Altcoinpro.com, email me at [email protected], or connect with me on X at curious__j.

About the Author:

Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA, is an international digital asset legal expert and author of Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally and an award winning artist.  Her writings are translated into 45 languages and republished in over 200 global publications.  She is recognized as an expert media/TV commentator on global AI,  digital asset regulation, tax, and technology matters.