Binance reports $6.3bn impacted in major security incident

UPDATE - follow-up to Crypto giant Binance freezes $2.5bn of assets over suspected hack: Binance reports that about $6.3bn in assets have been impacted in a security incident, with the firm promising to cover all losses.

Details of the Incident

Early checks show a compromised engineer laptop may have allowed an unauthorized withdrawal. This could be the biggest crypto heist ever, beating a 2025 Bybit exchange hack of $1.5bn. Binance.com is affected, but Binance.US stated its platform is not impacted. Withdrawals are currently disabled until the system is secure.

Freezes and Responses

Binance has frozen about half of the impacted assets with help from other platforms. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm froze around $1.6bn, while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated his company froze more than $800m. Former boss Changpeng Zhao said on X that it looks like a hack, and co-chief executive Yi He thanked issuers for freezing assets while confirming they work with law enforcement.

Market Impact

Bitcoin dropped by more than 4% after the alerts, and other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.

Context

Cryptocurrency exchanges hold vast amounts of digital assets, making them frequent targets for sophisticated cyber attacks. Major stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle often cooperate with trading platforms to freeze suspicious funds and limit losses during such security breaches.