BBC – The prominent cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced on Thursday that it has temporarily locked approximately $3 billion (£2.24 billion) in digital assets to avert potential theft while it investigates a security breach.
In a series of updates shared online, the company stated that all deposit and withdrawal activities are currently suspended while security assessments are conducted, assuring that it will take responsibility for any incurred losses.
“It certainly appears to be a breach concerning Binance,” noted Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO and current majority stakeholder in the firm.
In response to the possible breach at Binance, two other significant crypto exchanges, Tether and Circle, revealed that they collectively froze around $2.4 billion in assets.
Binance indicated that the total frozen funds might continue to rise as its teams collaborate closely with law enforcement and other entities to track and recover additional assets.
“We are operating continuously and will provide a comprehensive analysis once our investigation concludes. Kindly rely on official Binance communication channels for updates,” the company stated, adding that customers’ funds are secure.
As the leading cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, Binance holds a significant position in the crypto market.
Following these alerts, Bitcoin saw a decline of around 5%, with other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana also experiencing significant drops.
Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire mentioned that his organization is “vigilantly monitoring reports regarding a potential vulnerability involving Binance” and has frozen over $800 million in assets tied to the event.
Circle, the issuer and co-creator of USDC, is among the largest cryptocurrencies backed by the US dollar.
Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that his company has frozen approximately $1.6 billion “in relation to a potential hack of the Binance exchange.”
“Our top priority is to safeguard the industry and our partners,” said Ardoino, whose firm issues the USDT cryptocurrency.
Hours before Binance acknowledged the breach, various observers in the crypto community had raised alarms about the potential hack.
The extent of the breach remains uncertain.
In 2025, hackers successfully stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency from the Dubai-based exchange Bybit, an unprecedented incident attributed to hackers associated with North Korea.