Trump says he is looking into the $6.3 billion Binance hack as calls grow for crypto rules

President Donald Trump said on Friday he is looking into the hack of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange — a platform where people trade digital currencies. The exchange lost about $6.3 billion to hackers on Thursday, in what reports describe as the largest crypto hack on record.

Speaking at a press conference, Trump said Binance has said it is ensuring customers get their funds back. His comments came as pressure builds in Washington for new rules covering crypto exchanges.

Key points

• Binance was hacked Thursday for about $6.3 billion, its co-CEO Richard Teng said, caused in part by a compromised employee laptop.
• Trump said Friday he is looking into the hack and that Binance says customers will get their funds back.
• CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the attack shows why unregulated offshore exchanges need federal oversight.
• The Digital Chamber sent Congress a letter demanding a bill giving the CFTC authority over crypto exchanges.
• Lawmakers and policy experts disagree over whether the stalled Clarity Act would have helped freeze the stolen funds.

How the attack unfolded

Teng said the breach was caused in part by a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. That gave the attacker access to a service container — an isolated software environment — used to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a hacking unit it links to North Korea.

What Trump and the CFTC chair said

"But it's a hack," Trump said at the Friday press conference. "That's the problem. You know the old-fashioned way when you used to sign a check… these are different people, never see the money anymore. So I've always felt it was a little bit dangerous."

Earlier on CNBC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig pointed to Binance not being federally regulated by his agency as an issue. The CFTC is the US regulator for futures and derivatives trading.

"This proves our exact point in proposing regulations for crypto markets earlier this month," Selig said. "The real issue here is that these are unregulated offshore exchanges, and they don't have the same safeguards that we have in our financial markets here in the United States."

On Oct. 5, the CFTC proposed a federal framework for crypto, focused on leveraged and margined retail crypto trading — trading with borrowed money — plus a new registration category for exchanges offering those products.

Would the Clarity Act have helped?

The debate turned on the Clarity Act, broad legislation that would set rules for crypto exchanges and other parts of the industry. The House passed it last year, but it has stalled in the Senate amid concerns over Trump's crypto wealth, which has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars linked to World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., one of the bill's negotiators, said on X: "Yesterday, hackers stole more than $6 billion from Binance in less than 4 hours, the biggest heist in history. The Clarity Act would have given crypto firms legal cover to freeze suspicious transactions the instant law enforcement calls. Every minute lost is money gone for good."

Amanda Fischer, policy director at Better Markets and a former SEC chief of staff, pushed back. She said the bill would have required stablecoin issuers — companies behind tokens pegged to a currency like the dollar — to "freeze per a court order," while crypto firms were already working as quickly as they could to freeze the assets.

Patrick Wilson, general counsel at the Solana Policy Institute, said that was not right. He said a section of the Clarity Act "expressly protected stablecoin issuers from private lawsuits for voluntary, temporary holds based on a reasonable belief of a violation of law. No court order required."

Crypto groups push Congress to act

On Friday, The Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone sent a letter to House and Senate leadership demanding Congress immediately pass a bill giving the CFTC authority over crypto exchanges, and requiring customer funds to be kept separate from company funds in bankruptcy proceedings.

"No federal regulator can set and enforce consistent standards for how these platforms hold, segregate, and secure customer assets, or for their cybersecurity, before consumers are harmed," Carbone said. "Regulators can only act after the damage is done."

"We urge you to act before this Congress adjourns," he added.

Rep. Tom Timmons, R-S.C., raised national security concerns. "America cannot allow rogue regimes to exploit digital assets to finance their nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs," Timmons said in a post on X.

Binance's history of regulatory trouble

Both Republicans and Democrats have raised concerns about Binance over the years, particularly around money laundering and consumer protections. In 2023, then-CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls as part of a $4 billion settlement. Trump later pardoned him.

What is still unclear

Trump gave no timeline or detail for his review of the hack. It is also not confirmed whether any legislation will advance; the Clarity Act remains stalled in the Senate, and the sources do not say when or whether it will move.

Why this matters

The hack is the largest on record, and it has become a test case in the argument over who should police crypto exchanges. The CFTC chair and an industry group both say the episode shows offshore, unregulated platforms leave customers without protections, while the Senate fight over the Clarity Act — including disagreements about how freezing powers would actually work — is now directly tied to how the stolen funds can be recovered.

What happens next

The Digital Chamber urged Congress to pass its proposed bill before this Congress adjourns. Binance, per Trump's comments, says it is ensuring customers get their funds back. No timeline has been given for either.

Sources

• The Block

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