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On Thursday, Bitcoin traded within the $76,300 range after Binance confirmed a security breach with a total estimated impact of $6.3 billion. That estimate would place the incident among the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record.
Earlier in the session, Bitcoin had reached a 24-hour high of $81,890 before a sell-off in which millions in leveraged long positions were liquidated.
In a post on X, Binance stated that its initial investigation points to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. The attacker reportedly accessed a service container and submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The exchange noted that there is no evidence of a wallet private key leak.
“The estimated total impact sits at around 6.3B. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~3 billion frozen on-chain so far. Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe. We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete,” Binance posted on X
The $6.3 billion estimate exceeds earlier figures, which ranged from $2.7 billion to $5.8 billion. Binance has collaborated with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with approximately $3 billion frozen on-chain so far.
“We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are verified,” the company said.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated earlier that the company froze over 1.567 billion USDT, while Circle also froze USDC linked to the suspected attacker.
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Co-founder Yi He posted on X that user funds are safe and that Binance will cover all losses from the hack. Concerns arose after a user noticed more than $2.7 billion in assets, including Ethereum and stablecoins from Tether and Circle, being moved from a Binance wallet to an external account under suspicious circumstances.
Binance suspends transactions
Deposits and withdrawals remain suspended as the exchange conducts security checks, freezes funds, and cooperates with law enforcement. Binance has revoked authorization for the affected address and is working to identify those responsible.
Aave reportedly froze lending markets to prevent the suspected attacker from borrowing against the stolen funds. Binance.US stated that the incident does not affect its platform.
The company has not provided a timeline for the full post-mortem. Until then, Binance is asking users to rely solely on official channels for updates.
Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, tweeted on X during the exploit: “User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance. Appreciate the quick freeze from [Tether and Circle]. I don’t manage Binance (.com) anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”
Bitcoin dropped to $76,301 as news of the hack circulated. At the time of the report, Bitcoin was trading near $77,800.
