On Thursday night, Binance, the premier global cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a significant breach identified by investigators as the largest cryptocurrency hack ever, affecting $6.3 billion in digital currencies.
In response, Binance has paused all customer withdrawals. The company, alongside external investigators, is working diligently to recover the siphoned assets. According to a post on X, approximately $3 billion of the compromised $6.3 billion has been “frozen on-chain thus far.” Binance’s CEO, Yi He, indicated in another social media update that customer withdrawals are expected to resume by Sunday.
The exchange further stated it would “absorb all losses” through its Secure Asset Fund and reserves.
“The security of user funds remains our priority,” Binance confirmed, noting a temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals while their security processes are finalized.
The incident caused significant turmoil in cryptocurrency markets, resulting in a sharp decline in related stocks. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) plummeted to about $77,000 later that night.
Following the breach, other significant cryptocurrencies also fell, with Ether (ETH-USD) dropping by 4% to around $2,200. Binance’s native token, BNB (BND-USD), also experienced a more than 5% decline.
The fallout continued as shares in cryptocurrency-related companies were expected to open lower on Friday. Stocks for Circle, trading platforms like Coinbase (COIN), and Robinhood (HOOD) as well as the digital-asset management firm Strategy (MSTR) dropped over 6% in premarket trading on Friday.
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The assets that have been frozen reportedly include over $2 billion in stablecoins. Tether, recognized as the leading stablecoin provider, confirmed they’ve “frozen more than 1.567 billion” of its USDT in connection with the breach, as stated by CEO Paolo Ardoino on X. The second largest issuer, Circle (CRCL), has also frozen an additional $800 million “in coordination with law enforcement,” according to CEO Jeremy Allaire.
While specifics are still forthcoming, this hack is poised to become the largest theft in cryptocurrency history, far surpassing the last recorded breach that occurred in February 2025, when $1.5 billion was stolen from the crypto derivatives platform ByBit.
Investigation firms TRM Labs and Elliptic have traced the hack back to North Korean hackers, with TRM confidently attributing the breach to a group known as TraderTraitor, who previously conducted the Bybit hack.
Elliptic estimated on Friday that around 44% of the stolen assets have been frozen, mostly comprised of stablecoins. The firm also asserted that hackers still have control over more than $3 billion in crypto that token issuers cannot directly freeze.
The attackers seemingly breached Binance’s wallet-signing technology, permitting them to authorize transactions that drained billions across various blockchains. Preliminary investigations suggest that the issue may have originated from a compromised employee laptop. Binance insists there is no evidence indicating any leakage of wallet passwords.