Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, says a “security incident” on its platform affected about $6.3 billion worth of assets, and that nearly $3 billion of that has been frozen on-chain so far. The Hacker News reports the company has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed, and has revoked the affected address authorization. Blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis estimated on X that about $5.912 billion was stolen at the time of theft, which would make this the largest crypto heist on record, ahead of the roughly $1.5 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025.
BleepingComputer first reported the incident on Thursday, when Binance described it only as “a potential security issue” and said “user funds are completely safe.” BleepingComputer cited on-chain tracking showing billions of dollars moving out of several Binance hot wallets to a newly created Ethereum address. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle had frozen more than $800 million in USDC, both on X. BleepingComputer notes that Arkham Intelligence’s $5.78 billion figure is the value held across the wallets it is tracking, not a confirmed amount stolen.
In a later update quoted by The Hacker News, Binance said its initial investigation “suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.” The company said there is no evidence of a wallet private key leak, that it will cover all losses from its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and its own funds, and that it has engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners. Binance has not publicly said who is responsible, and these figures and the cause are preliminary and may change as the investigation continues.
According to BleepingComputer, Binance also warned customers to be cautious of scams and to avoid unofficial links, messages or requests for account information, and said it will provide updates through its official channels.
Sources
- Binance probes potential $5.8 billion crypto-theft hack, BleepingComputer
- Binance Suffers Security Breach Affecting $6.3 Billion in Assets, Nearly $3 Billion Frozen, The Hacker News
- Binance support announcement, linked from The Hacker News (the page returned no content to our fetch, so Binance’s statements here are attributed to the outlets above)