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Binance Investigates Potential $6.3 Billion Crypto Hack
Confirmed
In Short: Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is investigating a potential security issue that may have resulted in a $6.3 billion crypto theft.
The company said its teams are working around the clock to resolve the issue and has temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals while conducting security checks.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who stepped down as CEO after pleading guilty to a felony in 2023, acknowledged the situation looks like a hack but assured users their funds are safe.
According to Binance, 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.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company had frozen the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to the incident.
Binance has also disclosed that Ripple, the cryptocurrency company associated with XRP and RLUSD, helped prevent the movement of another $200 million in funds potentially linked to the suspected attack.
The exchange said it will cover all losses and share more technical details once the investigation is complete and when the facts are fully verified.
Binance spent October 29 telling customers it was looking into a “potential security issue” while stablecoin issuers froze billions of dollars across the market.
According to blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis, the estimated value of the stolen cryptocurrency is approximately $5.912 billion.
Binance said it has found no evidence of any wallet private key leak and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete.
As a shareholder, Zhao expects all user funds will be fully covered.
Binance has not confirmed its exchange has been hacked but said it is aware of the “potential security issue and is actively investigating.”
What this adds
Binance reported a security issue that resulted in the theft of over $6 billion in crypto assets, causing bitcoin prices to drop.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is investigating a potential security issue that appears to be a hack, impacting approximately $6.3 billion in crypto assets, according to the company.
Background
Binance reported a security issue that resulted in the theft of over $6 billion in crypto assets, causing bitcoin prices to drop.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is investigating a potential security issue that appears to be a hack, impacting approximately $6.3 billion in crypto assets, according to the company.
What's confirmed
- Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is investigating a potential security issue that appears to be a hack.
- It wasn’t immediately clear the extent of the damage hackers might have been able to cause, and Binance had not explicitly confirmed that funds had been pilfered.
- Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who stepped down as CEO after pleading guilty to a felony, said user funds are safe but acknowledged the situation looks like a hack.
- The company said its teams are “working around the clock” to resolve the issue.
- Binance assures users their funds are safe and is reviewing information urgently.
- "Rest assured that user funds are completely safe," a Binance spokesperson said in a statement.
- "Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information," the statement continued.
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to "a potential Binance exchange hack."
- "Binance's 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 wrote.
- He also said that the security breach appeared to be an “injection attack” on the front end. it appears to be an injection attack on the front end. injecting incorrect tx, but showing a valid tx for the user to sign. — CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 29, 2026 Changpeng founded Binance in 2017.
- "as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered."
- "We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak," it added.
What's still developing
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- READ MORE: How crypto, real estate and watches added up for Trump last year Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO.
- By some estimates, Binance may have lost upward of $5.7 billion in crypto, though the numbers have not been confirmed and it’s possible that the theft is ongoing.
- Binance Drained of $5.5 Billion in Suspected Hack, Tether and Circle Freeze $1.8 Billion At least $5.57 billion in crypto has left wallets linked to Binance across three blockchains in what appears to be a breach of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
- Binance said on October 29 that it was investigating reports of a “potential security issue,” and within hours crypto firms were freezing assets tied to the episode.
- For the earlier snapshot of the withdrawal pause, see our first report on the Binance withdrawal pause and the reported $3.52 billion outflow.
- In response to the potential breach, the exchange has frozen around $2.5 billion in funds to prevent further theft, although independent confirmation of this action and the details surrounding the alleged theft are still pending.
- Ari Redbord, TRM’s global head of policy, described the attack as “unprecedented” and a “watershed”.
- "Our teams work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets," the company wrote in a separate post earlier Thursday.