Binance Stops $1.2M DAO Governance Attack With 48 Hours to Spare

Binance security chief Jimmy Su said the response shows that security work now reaches past the exchange's own systems. He said many attacks today target people and access rather than code flaws.

In July, BonkDAO said an attacker drained about $20 million in BONK tokens from its treasury. That attacker built up enough voting power to pass a harmful proposal on their own. A separate case at KelpDAO involved a bridge hack rather than a vote. Chainalysis reported that hackers took about $292 million from KelpDAO's bridge. Quick action after that theft blocked another $95 million and froze thousands of ETH tied to the attacker.

Su said this latest case started with a weakness in how the DAO's voting system was built.

Early warnings have also helped outside of DAO cases. The FBI's Operation Level Up told more than 8,000 people they may be victims of crypto fraud by December 2025. Most of them did not know they were being targeted. The agency said its tips likely stopped about $511.5 million in losses.

Binance said it spends close to $300 million a year on compliance work. Almost 1,500 staff work in related roles at the company. The exchange said its checks caught $10.53 billion in fraud or unusual activity from 2025 into early 2026.

As of Binance's Aug. 18 disclosure, the exchange has not released the name of the DAO or the token involved in this case.