The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has suffered a security breach with an estimated financial impact of $6.3 billion.
The company has temporarily suspended all withdrawals and deposits across its network while investigations into the incident are ongoing.
The founder of the platform, Changpeng Zhao, confirmed the development on Thursday. He stated that stablecoin issuers intervened immediately, freezing $971 million by Tether and $823 million by Circle.
“User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance. Appreciate the quick freeze from Tether ($971m) and Circle ($823m),” Zhao announced via his official X handle.
He added that despite stepping away from the daily management of the exchange, he expects the company to ensure all user funds are protected.
Meanwhile, Binance in a statement disclosed confirmed the attack, stressing that the breach was likely linked to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. This vulnerability allowed the attacker to access a service container and execute unauthorized withdrawal transactions.
“We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. The estimated total impact sits at around $6.3B. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far.”
The global cryptocurrency exchange, however, assured its customers that all user funds remain safe and losses will be fully covered. Binance assured the public that it will cover all financial losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) alongside internal company funds.
The exchange stated it will publish a detailed technical post-mortem and an updated Proof of Reserves once remediation is complete.
Binance called on the public to remain calm, advising users to remain vigilant against opportunistic scams and to avoid sharing account information through unauthorised channels or unofficial links.
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