Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volumes, is investigating a suspected major hack after freezing more than $2.5 billion in digital assets, triggering a sell-off across cryptocurrency markets.
The exchange said it had frozen $2.54 billion in assets and could raise that figure further as its teams work with law enforcement, stablecoin issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners.
Binance said it had not confirmed any impact on customer funds. “At this stage, we have not confirmed any impact to user funds,” a company spokesperson said, adding that its security teams were investigating reports of a potential security issue.
The exchange also suspended withdrawals on multiple networks, describing the move as a precautionary measure. It said it was working to restore services when it was safe to do so.
However, several industry experts said the incident appeared to involve a significant amount of stolen assets.
“It does look like a hack on Binance,” said former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the company but remains its largest shareholder. Zhao said he expected all user funds to be fully covered.
How much crypto was frozen?
The two largest stablecoin issuers, Tether and Circle, also moved to freeze digital assets linked to the suspected incident.
Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said his company had frozen more than $1.5 billion in USDT “related to a potential Binance exchange hack”.
Circle chief Jeremy Allaire said $800 million of its USDC had been frozen amid reports of a potential exploit involving Binance.
USDT and USDC are stablecoins whose value is pegged to the US dollar.
Meanwhile, blockchain tracker Arkham identified wallets associated with the suspected hacker holding about $5.9 billion in digital assets. However, this figure does not necessarily represent the amount stolen from Binance.
How did Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies react?
Bitcoin slumped as much as 3.7%, falling below $79,000 to its lowest level since September, as news of the suspected hack weighed on investor sentiment. Other digital tokens also sold off.
“The rumoured Binance hack is definitely driving down coin prices,” Fredrick Collins, chief executive and co-founder of crypto data platform Velo Data, told Bloomberg.
“Binance is such a behemoth in crypto that any hit to confidence in them is a hit to confidence in the industry as a whole,” he added.
The sell-off comes after a two-month-long price rebound in the cryptocurrency market. Traders were already preparing for volatility, with $11 billion in crypto options scheduled to expire on Friday.
Why is the Binance hack significant?
If confirmed, the incident could surpass the February 2025 attack on crypto exchange Bybit, in which hackers stole almost $1.5 billion in tokens. The incident was attributed to hackers affiliated with North Korea.
Binance has an emergency reserve fund, the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), established in 2018 to protect customers in extreme situations. The fund is generally maintained at around $1 billion.
“Hot wallets getting drained is not something new to crypto, but the amount would be a meaningful hack on the largest crypto exchange,” said James Seyffart of Bloomberg Intelligence.
“It’s definitely a bad look. And this is one after another,” he added, referring to a recent spate of security incidents.
The Binance incident also came on the same day that Polymarket halted trading on its international exchange for an hour after a third-party software provider was compromised. Blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps said more than 700 users had lost $2.7 million in funds.
