Crypto exchange Binance confirms $6.3 billion hack, freezes half

30/10/2026 06:45 AST

Cryptocurrency platform Binance said on Thursday it had been hit by a major hack affecting about $6.3 billion in funds, around half of which has been frozen to prevent theft.

The world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume posted a series of sometimes contradictory messages on X, saying "user funds are completely safe" but also that it would "cover all losses". On its Latin America account, the company later said "the total estimated impact is around $6.3 billion" and that about $3 billion had been frozen on-chain with the help of blockchain partners. That is four times the previous record for such an attack, the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit platform in February last year, which was attributed to hackers linked to North Korea.

At about 0030 GMT on Friday, Binance said all deposits and withdrawals had been "temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement". The figure "may continue to increase" as it works to trace and freeze more assets, it said.

An initial investigation suggested the hackers used a compromised laptop belonging to a "DevOps engineer" to access a "service container" and carry out unauthorized withdrawals, Binance said. "We have found no evidence of any private key leaks from wallets," it said, promising a detailed technical analysis once the investigation is complete. "It does look like a hack on Binance," said former chief executive Changpeng Zhao, who remains majority shareholder.

Tether chief Paolo Ardoino said his company had frozen about $1.6 billion of its USDT stablecoin "related to a potential Binance exchange hack", and Circle chief Jeremy Allaire said his firm had frozen more than $800 million in USDC. Stablecoins are digital currencies pegged to a traditional currency, in this case the US dollar. The US Justice Department and FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Most major cryptocurrencies fell on the news. At about 0400 GMT, bitcoin and Ethereum were down 0.8 percent, after falling nearly 5 percent and 6 percent respectively, while Binance's BNB token was up 2.7 percent after a plunge of nearly 10 percent.

AFP