Binance confirms $6.3B hack impact as bitcoin slides to $76,300

On Thursday, bitcoin was hovering in the $76,300 area and Binance confirmed a security breach the exchange puts at $6.3 billion in total impact. That figure would make the incident one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record.

The session had seen bitcoin reach a 24-hour high of $81,890 prior to the selloff, with millions in leveraged long positions liquidated.

Writing on X, Binance said its preliminary inquiry indicates the breach may stem from a DevOps engineer's compromised laptop. The attacker, according to reports, reached a service container and put through unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance added that it has seen no indication that any wallet private key was leaked.

"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," the exchange wrote on X.

The $6.3 billion figure tops earlier estimates, which had put the loss somewhere between $2.7 billion and $5.8 billion. Binance has said it coordinated with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with about $3 billion frozen onchain to date.

"We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are verified," the exchange said.

Earlier, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm froze over 1.567 billion USDT, while Circle also blocked USDC linked to the suspected attacker.

Yi He, a co-founder, posted on X that user funds remain safe and Binance would bear all losses from the hack. Worries about a possible breach began when a user spotted more than $2.7 billion in assets — among them Ethereum and stablecoins from Tether and Circle — moving out of a Binance wallet to an external account in suspicious fashion.

Binance halts deposits and withdrawals

The exchange has kept deposits and withdrawals on hold during its security review, asset freezes and coordination with law enforcement. Binance said it has revoked authorization for the affected address and is trying to identify those behind the incident.

Aave is said to have frozen lending markets so the suspected attacker could not borrow using the stolen assets. Binance.US said its platform is unaffected by the incident.

Binance has yet to say when the full post-mortem will be published. In the meantime, it is telling users to get updates only through official Binance channels.

Changpeng Zhao, who previously ran Binance as CEO, wrote on X while the exploit was underway: "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 fell to $76,301 as word of the hack spread. It was last changing hands around $77,800.