Crypto worth billions frozen after suspected Binance hack
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Crypto giant Binance said on Thursday that it has frozen digital assets worth around $3bn (£2.24bn) to prevent them from being stolen while it investigates a security issue.
The company announced a series of alerts online that all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while its teams conduct security checks and assure that the firm will “cover all losses”.
“It does look like a hack on Binance,” said Binance's former boss Changpeng Zhao, who remains a majority shareholder of the firm.
Two other major crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, also froze a total of about $2.4bn of assets in response to the potential Binance hack.
Binance stated that the frozen funds may continue to increase as its teams collaborate with law enforcement and other partners to trace and seize additional assets.
"We are working around the clock and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete. Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates," the firm added, assuring users that their funds are safe.
Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes.
Bitcoin dropped by around 5% following the alerts. The prices of other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.
Circle's CEO Jeremy Allaire said his firm is "closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance" and that they have frozen over $800m in assets linked to the incident.
Circle is the issuer and co-creator of USDC, one of the world's largest US dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.
Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino stated their firm has frozen around $1.6bn "related to a potential Binance exchange hack."
"Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority," said Ardoino, referring to their company which issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT.
Several crypto industry observers had previously flagged concerns about a potential hack on Binance hours before the exchange confirmed the attack.
The scale of the attack remains unclear.
In 2025, hackers stole $1.5bn in crypto from the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. The record-breaking incident was attributed to hackers linked with North Korea.