Binance locks accounts after hack, vows to cover every dollar lost

The promise to make customers whole does more to reassure clients than to stabilise the exchange. BNB keeps dropping, hinting that investors are weighing the impact on Binance's finances and the prospect of a drawn-out interruption. Since funds are stuck on the largest trading platform, pricing on other exchanges may diverge further, and the potential for selling pressure to accumulate is growing. Everything hinges on the difference between what was stolen and what has been frozen. A hole of roughly $760 million is manageable by SAFU. A figure entering the billions would cast doubt on Binance's balance sheet and almost certainly push BNB lower.

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This story has unfolded in stages, with key developments coming in quick succession:

1. Tether froze $971M in USDT while crypto markets sold off amid the suspected Binance hack.
2. Changpeng Zhao acknowledged the hack as Tether and Circle together froze $1.79B in stablecoins.
3. With the suspected loss exceeding $3B, Binance halted withdrawals as Tether and Circle froze $2.4B.

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The exchange has locked both deposit and withdrawal functions and pledged to reimburse every dollar lost, though without a confirmed loss figure that commitment remains difficult to evaluate.

Key points at a glance:

• Co-chief executive Yi He was reported to have announced a halt on all deposits and withdrawals at Binance, alongside a commitment to cover every loss tied to the suspected hack.
• Verified frozen assets have reached $2.54 billion according to Binance, with Tether and Circle together accounting for over $2.37 billion of that total.
• The full extent of the losses is not yet known. Changpeng Zhao put the figure at just over $1 billion, on-chain data implies a shortfall around $760 million, and broader counts hitting $5.57 billion would leave more than $3 billion still unaccounted for.
• The exchange's SAFU emergency fund, holding close to $1 billion in bitcoin, can absorb the lower estimated loss.
• A timeline for resuming service, a confirmed loss total, and an attribution have not been released; Binance has pledged a complete post-incident review.
• BNB declined by 8.6%, trading near $694, while bitcoin slid to roughly $77,700.

All deposits and withdrawals have been suspended by Binance following a suspected cyberattack, with the platform committing to cover any resulting losses and counting $2.54 billion in assets already frozen. Announced just after midnight GMT on Friday, 30 October, via a post on X, the sweeping restriction broadened a narrower stoppage that had been applied to specific networks. The move formalised a promise that co-founder Changpeng Zhao had initially indicated personally, elevating it to an official corporate guarantee.

The halt will continue, Binance stated, as its team conducts security audits, freezes relevant funds, and coordinates with authorities. The exchange pledged to issue a complete post-incident analysis. ChainCatcher and PANews reported that co-CEO Yi He made the commitment. Binance did not specify when operations would resume, what the exact theft amount is, the method the attacker used, or whom it blames. Trading was also stopped on Binance Alpha, the exchange's venue for early-stage digital assets.

A subsequent update from Binance placed verified locked assets at $2.54 billion, with additional tracking still in progress. Tether has frozen over 1.567 billion USDT and Circle over 800 million USDC, a combined sum close to $2.37 billion. This implies around $170 million was frozen by entities that have not yet been identified.

Exactly how deep the deficit is that Binance has agreed to fill is not yet clear. Zhao suggested the loss might be just above $1 billion. FinanceFeeds tracked roughly $3.3 billion exiting Binance's Ethereum hot wallets, which against the $2.54 billion frozen yields a shortfall of about $760 million. A broader estimate from Decrypt puts the figure at $5.57 billion, including bitcoin and Tron movements not directly linked to the attacker, leaving over $3 billion exposed. Having funds frozen is distinct from recovering them, a process that typically spans weeks via issuers or legal proceedings.

A safety net exists at Binance. The Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), created in 2018 as an insurance pool, contains roughly $1 billion in bitcoin. It was tapped previously to handle a 7,000 BTC loss in a 2019 security breach. SAFU is sufficient for the smaller estimated gap, but an amount approaching the larger tally would require Binance to draw from its own reserves.

Market prices have been declining during the saga. BNB, Binance's native token, was trading close to $694 at roughly 00:15 GMT, an 8.6% drop over the day, as bitcoin dipped to approximately $77,700, based on CoinGecko figures reported by FinanceFeeds. Both assets are lower than they were at the time the initial withdrawal halt was enacted.

For now, Binance users cannot move funds out of the exchange, despite the company's assurances that their holdings are safe. Only official Binance communications should be relied upon, as scams tend to follow such incidents.

The steps to watch for are a verified loss amount, the promised post-mortem analysis, and the resumption of withdrawals. If the scale of the theft matches current reports, this hack would exceed the $1.5 billion Bybit incident from February 2025, making it the largest crypto heist ever.