Binance breach hits $6.3 billion

Binance estimated the total impact of a security breach at approximately $6.3 billion on Thursday.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange is investigating how a compromised laptop for a DevOps engineer allowed an attacker to access a service container. The intruder submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions through this access point.

Binance stated it has not found evidence of a wallet private key leak. The company worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with roughly $3 billion frozen on-chain so far.

All deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended while the company conducts security checks and works with law enforcement. A Binance spokesperson said in a statement that user funds are completely safe. The company added that its teams are working around the clock to resolve the issue and will share technical details once facts are fully verified.

Stablecoin providers moved quickly to halt the flow of funds. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote on X that the company froze more than $800 million in currency in coordination with law enforcement. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that his company froze more than $1.5 billion in currency related to the incident.

Bitcoin prices dropped 3.2 percent on Thursday evening to fall under $79,000. The price movement followed the exchange's announcement of the potential security issue.

Changpeng Zhao founded Binance in 2017. He pleaded guilty to a felony in 2023 for failing to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in 2025.

Zhao posted on X that user funds are safe. He acknowledged that the incident looks like a hack on Binance. As a shareholder, he said he expects all user funds will be fully covered.

Zhao was released from prison last year after serving a sentence for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He was the first person sentenced to prison time for violations of that law, which requires U.S. financial institutions to monitor transactions and file reports of suspicious activity. Prosecutors stated that no one had ever violated the regulations to the extent Zhao did. Zhao and Binance have supported several crypto enterprises owned by the Trump family.