Binance Freezes Billions After Reported Breach

Cryptocurrency traders using Binance faced suspended deposits and withdrawals Thursday as the exchange investigated what its founder called a hack. Bitcoin fell 3.2 percent Thursday evening to under $79,000.

Binance estimated the total impact of the incident at approximately $6.3 billion, according to a post on its X account. The company said it worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with roughly $3 billion frozen on-chain so far. The company's initial investigation suggests the incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance said it found no evidence of any wallet private key leak.

Stablecoin providers froze funds in response. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to a potential Binance exchange hack. Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, wrote on X that his company had frozen the equivalent of more than $800 million in currency associated with the incident in coordination with law enforcement.

A Binance spokesperson said in a statement that user funds are completely safe. The spokesperson said security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency and will provide updates through official Binance channels. The company said its teams are working around the clock to resolve the issue.

Changpeng Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017, posted on X Thursday that user funds are safe but added that the incident does look like a hack on Binance. Zhao, who no longer manages the company, said that as a shareholder he expects all user funds will be fully covered. Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025.

Binance said it will share more technical details once the investigation is complete and when the facts are fully verified. The company said it works closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets.