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Cryptocurrency giant Binance said Thursday that a major security incident had an estimated total impact of approximately $6.3 billion, with $3 billion already frozen, as the exchange temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals and pledged to cover customer losses.
In a statement to FOX Business, a Binance spokesperson said the company was working to resolve the incident and had temporarily halted transactions as a precaution.
“Binance has confirmed a security incident and our teams are working around the clock to resolve it,” the spokesperson said.
“User funds remain safe. As a precaution, all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our security teams conduct checks, secure wallet infrastructure, and trace affected assets, with the close support of our law enforcement and industry partners.”
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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, also pledged to cover any financial losses resulting from the incident.
“Users will not bear the financial impact of this incident,” the spokesperson said. “Binance will cover all losses.”
In a post on X, Binance said its initial investigation suggests the security incident may have involved a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, potentially allowing an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.
The exchange said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were compromised.
Binance founder and majority shareholder Changpeng Zhao suggested the incident appeared to be a cyberattack, although the company has not officially characterized it as a hack.
“User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance,” Zhao wrote on X.
Zhao, who no longer manages the exchange, also thanked stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle for quickly freezing affected assets. At the time of his post, Zhao said Tether had frozen approximately $971 million and Circle about $823 million.
Tether later said it had frozen nearly $1.57 billion in assets related to the incident, while Circle had frozen more than $800 million, according to Reuters.
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Crypto firm Ripple also froze roughly $200 million in potentially affected funds and said it was coordinating with relevant parties, according to Reuters.
Binance co-founder Yi He also addressed the incident on X, saying the exchange had temporarily disabled withdrawals while its security teams worked to secure the platform.
“User funds are safe. Binance will cover all hacking losses. Deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement,” she wrote.
Binance said it would cover losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds, while promising to publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the incident is resolved.
Following the announcement of the security incident, Bitcoin fell roughly 2% to a six-week low of $77,646 in early Asian trading Friday, according to Reuters.
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Ether also dropped approximately 2% to a two-month low of $2,238.76, while BNB, a token originally launched as Binance Coin, declined more than 8% over 24 hours to $694, according to CoinGecko data cited by Reuters.
Reuters contributed to this report.
