Binance says $6.3 billion impacted by potential security breach

Binance reported an estimated financial impact of $6.3 billion on Thursday following the discovery of a potential security issue. The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange stated that the incident is currently under investigation, with the company confirming that all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended to facilitate security checks and law enforcement cooperation.

Changpeng Zhao, the platform's founder, acknowledged the severity of the situation in a post on X. While noting that he no longer manages the company, Zhao said the incident does look like a hack on Binance. He assured followers that user funds are safe and stated that, as a shareholder, he expects all user funds to be fully covered.

A Binance spokesperson issued a statement late Thursday asserting that user funds are completely safe. The company added that its teams are working around the clock to resolve the issue and will provide updates through official channels once verified information is available. The exchange wrote on its X account that it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with roughly $3 billion already frozen on-chain.

The company detailed the technical breakdown in a post, stating that the incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. This compromise allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance noted that it found no evidence of any wallet private key leak and will share more technical details once the facts are fully verified.

Stablecoin providers moved quickly to contain the spread of the incident. Circle, co-founded by Jeremy Allaire, said it froze the equivalent of more than $800 million in currency associated with the event. Allaire noted that this action was taken in coordination with law enforcement. Tether, led by CEO Paolo Ardoino, reported freezing the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to the potential Binance exchange hack.

Market reactions followed the announcement, with the price of bitcoin dropping 3.2% on Thursday evening to under $79,000. The decline occurred as traders assessed the scale of the freeze and the potential for further asset recovery. Binance said it is working closely with law enforcement, issuers, and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and freeze additional assets.

Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017, has a complex history with U.S. regulators. He pleaded guilty to a felony in 2023 related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. He was the first person sentenced to prison time for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, a law requiring U.S. financial institutions to monitor transactions and file reports of suspicious activity. Trump pardoned Zhao in 2025, and he was released from prison last year.

The exchange has not explicitly confirmed that funds were pilfered, though it is reviewing all relevant information with urgency. Prosecutors previously stated that no one had violated the Bank Secrecy Act regulations to the extent Zhao did. Binance and Zhao have been key supporters of some Trump family crypto enterprises, adding a layer of political context to the current security review.