Theory Open
EIP-7702 caused the hack
After Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the attacker used an EIP-7702 delegation, some commenters treated the Ethereum feature as the cause. Ethereum community member VEER said it gave attackers a handy sweep button on Ethereum.
This is a theory, not an established fact. First seen . Updated .
What the evidence does and does not show
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng is reported as saying the attacker used an EIP-7702 delegation to gain execution authority over a hot wallet. Blockaid says the attacker first drained a Binance wallet in a single transaction of about $2.5B from 20:24 UTC, minutes after Binance's signing infrastructure, which it says was under the attacker's control, signed an EIP-7702 authorization delegating that wallet to an attacker-deployed sweeper; Hacken puts one Ethereum transaction at about $2.53B. TRM Labs says Binance wallets on the other nine chains sent funds through ordinary signed transfers. Blockaid's CEO told Cointelegraph attackers could have stolen the funds without EIP-7702, and the CEO of the wallet provider Ambire said it made little difference. Hacken, quoting investigators, and Blockaid's CEO point to a compromise of Binance's signing system. The record shows the feature was used on Ethereum; it does not settle whether it was the cause. In the sources captured as of 2026-11-01, Binance has not published a root cause.
Evidence
Evidence for (3)
The attacker used an EIP-7702 delegation to gain execution authority over a hot wallet, Teng said. That delegation “did not pass through our normal approval controls.”
Richard Teng, Cointelegraph. Captured . Original
Note: Teng: the delegation did not pass through normal approval controls.
“The 7702 upgrade is a way to do this in one sweep and maybe a way to bypass some sort of checks they may have,”
Ido Ben-Natan, Cointelegraph. Captured . Original
Note: Blockaid's CEO: 7702 is a way to do it in one sweep.
VEER later said the Binance attack appeared broader than a single malicious signature, but that EIP-7702 gave attackers “a handy sweep button on Ethereum.”
Cointelegraph. Captured . Original
Note: A handy sweep button on Ethereum.
Evidence against (4)
The most likely explanation is that the attacker gained the ability to make Binance's hot wallet signing system sign transactions of its choosing across chains.
Hacken. Captured . Original
Note: Signing system signed across chains.
Binance wallets on the other nine chains sent funds to the attacker through ordinary signed transfers.
TRM Labs, TRM Labs. Captured . Original
Note: Other chains used ordinary signed transfers.
Attackers could have stolen the funds without EIP-7702, Ido Ben-Natan, Blockaid’s co-founder and CEO, told Cointelegraph on Friday.
Ido Ben-Natan, Cointelegraph. Captured . Original
Note: Attackers could have stolen the funds without EIP-7702.
Ivo Georgiev, co-founder and CEO of Ethereum wallet provider Ambire, said that EIP-7702 made little difference to the attack because the hackers already had the ability to authorize transactions.
Ivo Georgiev, Cointelegraph. Captured . Original
Note: EIP-7702 made little difference.
Context (3)
At Binance the delegation stayed for 3 hours 46 minutes after the sweep and later deposits were swept again
Hacken. Captured . Original
Note: The delegation stayed in place for 3 hours 46 minutes.
Blockaid said the delegation was visible on-chain for three minutes and 24 seconds before the sweep.
The delegation itself was visible onchain for three minutes and 24 seconds before the sweep
blockaid.io. Captured . Original
Note: Delegation visible before the sweep.
Blockaid's transaction security engine classified the type-4 transaction that delegated Binance 14 as malicious on sight, with the reason that an EOA was being upgraded through EIP-7702 to an untrusted address.
blockaid.io. Captured . Original
Note: Blockaid says its engine flagged the delegation.