Binance Halts Withdrawals After $6.3 Billion Hack, The Biggest In Crypto History
Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals after a major security breach estimated to have caused $6.3 billion in losses, potentially the largest crypto hack on record. The exchange suspects a compromised engineer's laptop enabled unauthorised withdrawals. Tether and Circle froze billions in linked assets, while Binance pledged to cover users' losses and investigate the incident.
Binance Halts Withdrawals After $6.3 Billion Hack, The Biggest In Crypto History | X
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, suspended all deposits and withdrawals after a massive security breach. Binance estimated the impact at $6.3 billion, with around $3 billion in assets frozen so far. That would make it the largest crypto hack on record.
How the breach unfolded
Suspicion began when analysts spotted unusually large onchain transfers out of the exchange. Analyst Spreek flagged about $3.55 billion arriving in a single unlabeled wallet, and nearly $900 million of that was later split across other wallets, The Block reported. Coinbase's Conor Grogan put the total at up to $5.8 billion. Blockaid said it was investigating roughly $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows from Binance hot wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche.
Binance co-founder Yi He first said on X that the company was aware of reports of a potential security issue and was investigating. Later she said deposits and withdrawals were suspended while the team conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement.
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What Binance says caused it
Binance's initial investigation points to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which let an attacker access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawals. The exchange found no evidence of a private key leak. Binance has promised a full post-mortem once its investigation ends.
Researchers at TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence said the attack appeared to be the work of a North Korean hacking group. Binance has not confirmed any attribution.
Stablecoin issuers freeze funds
Tether and Circle moved quickly to limit the damage. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company froze more than 1.567 billion USDT, while Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said more than 800 million USDC linked to the incident had been frozen. Onchain data put the combined freeze at about $1.79 billion at the time of The Block's report. Yi He later said Ripple helped halt the movement of another $200 million.
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Binance promises to cover losses
Yi He said on X that user funds are safe and that Binance will cover all hacking-related losses. The exchange said it would use its SAFU emergency fund and company funds. Former chief executive Changpeng Zhao said he no longer manages the exchange but, as a shareholder, expects all user funds to be fully covered. He also credited Tether and Circle for freezing funds fast.
DeFi platforms and markets react
Aave froze all its DAO-operated lending markets on V3 and V4, pausing new deposits and borrows to stop the attacker from borrowing against stolen assets. It said its contracts were unaffected and that positions remain overcollateralized. Kamino also suspended transactions across selected markets. The BNB token fell more than 5.5% at the time of The Block's report, and other major cryptocurrencies also traded lower.
What happens next
Binance has not said when deposits and withdrawals will resume, only that they will restart once the issue is fully resolved. It has urged users to rely on official channels for updates and said it will publish only verified figures.
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