Binance Ethereum Hot Wallets Drained of Over $5.5 Billion via EIP-7702 Delegation Attack
On October 29, attackers drained between $2.5 and $3.5 billion in ETH and tokens from Binance hot wallets on Ethereum within 40 minutes, with the total including Bitcoin and Tron reaching at least $5.57 billion according to Decrypt. The attacker did not steal private keys directly but instead used EIP-7702 to delegate execution code from a malicious contract to Binance 14, allowing a single sweep call to transfer all assets. Tether and Circle froze roughly $2.5 billion in USDT and USDC within the first hours, while Binance stated user funds remain secure and investigations continue. Blockchain analysis reveals 18 hours of preparation including three test runs on external wallets funded via Tornado Cash, followed by the main delegation and sweep in just over three minutes. The attack shares strong operational similarities with previous incidents attributed to TraderTraitor, a Lazarus subgroup, including gas funding patterns, test sweeps, and the use of a sweep function. ETH was moved first to an address that has not yet dispersed funds, while stablecoins were fragmented across new wallets before partial freezes took effect.
Habr•Crypto & Financial Crime
