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Friday 30 Oct 2026
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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a potential security breach after around $3 billion in digital assets were frozen in an effort to prevent them from being stolen. (Photo/Reuters)
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a potential security breach after around $3 billion in digital assets were frozen in an effort to prevent them from being stolen, the company said on Thursday.
The world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume said it had temporarily suspended trading of tokens listed on Binance Alpha and halted deposits and withdrawals while its teams conducted security checks.
“Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating. User funds are completely safe,” Binance said on X.
The company urged users to remain cautious of scams and avoid unofficial links, messages or requests for account information.
Billions in assets frozen
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said it looked like a hack and thanked stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle for freezing funds.
Tether froze about $971 million, while Circle froze around $823 million in USDC, Zhao said.
Binance later said the verified total of frozen assets stood at around $3 billion, while the estimated overall impact reached approximately $6.3 billion.
The exchange said it was working with law enforcement, cryptocurrency issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets.
Binance co-founder Yi He said the company would cover all losses resulting from the hack.
“Deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement,” she said.
Possible compromised engineer’s laptop
The exchange’s initial investigation suggested the incident may have involved a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which allegedly allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
Binance said it had found no evidence of a wallet private key leak and would publish a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation was complete and the facts had been verified.
Several industry observers had reported a potential breach before Binance confirmed the security issue, with some suggesting it could become one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record.
The incident comes after hackers stole $1.5 billion from the Bybit platform in February 2025, an attack attributed to hackers affiliated with North Korea.
Bitcoin prices fell more than three percent following news of the Binance incident.
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Source: TRT
