Abstract:
According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Axios, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has suspended all deposits and withdrawals to investigate a suspected hacker attack. Several blockchain security agencies estimate that the value of stolen assets may exceed
$6 billion
. If the estimates are confirmed, this would be the largest cryptocurrency theft to date.
Binance co-founder He Yi said on social platform X that Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals after encountering a hacker attack. She said that user funds are safe and
Binance will bear all losses caused by this hacker attack
.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also said on X that Binance does seem to have been hacked, but user funds are safe. Changpeng Zhao is no longer a Binance executive and remains the company’s largest shareholder.
Binance stated that the team is conducting security checks, freezing funds, and cooperating with law enforcement authorities. A company spokesman said security teams were urgently reviewing all relevant information. As of the time of the Axios report, Binance has not confirmed the identity of the attacker, nor has it released the final amount of stolen assets.
Changpeng Zhao initially stated that stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle had quickly frozen approximately
1.7 billion U.S. dollars
of stolen assets. Binance subsequently updated the frozen amount to approximately3 billion U.S. dollars
, involving multiple assets. Security analysts told the Wall Street Journal that the hackers may have stolen more funds.Estimates of the amount stolen vary from agency to agency. Taylor Monahan of the blockchain security organization SEAL 911 said that the assets stolen by the attackers are worth well over $2 billion and may be as high as $5.5 billion, but information changes quickly and the exact number will take time to confirm.
Blockchain tracking company Chainalysis estimates that the amount stolen is approximately
$5.9 billion
. Investigators from blockchain analytics company TRM Labs estimated that the losses exceeded$6 billion
.Stablecoin issuers can freeze related tokens to prevent hackers from transferring or redeeming these assets. This typically involves blacklisting the hacker’s wallet address, thus locking the coins in the wallet before they can be transferred or laundered via mixing tools.
The previous largest cryptocurrency theft occurred in 2025. At the time, hackers linked to North Korea stole approximately $1.5 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. virtual assets. The FBI previously determined that North Korea was responsible for the theft.
Cryptocurrency exchanges are frequently targeted by hackers. Many exchanges store cryptocurrencies for customers, and hackers may try to steal assets from exchange wallets and then transfer or exchange them. Axios pointed out that large-scale attacks may trigger panic withdrawals from users, putting smaller exchanges at risk of collapse.
Kevin March, co-founder of cryptocurrency trading company JPEG Trading, said that the loss was huge in absolute terms. However, he believes that Binance’s scale makes it better able to deal with shocks and can cover potential losses through insurance funds and its own balance sheet. The Wall Street Journal stated that Binance has approximately
1.2 billion US dollars in insurance funds
.March also said that this incident may still have a wider impact on the cryptocurrency market and prices.
Binance.US, the U.S. branch of Binance, stated that the company was not affected by the security incident.
A few hours before the Binance incident was exposed, the prediction market platform Polymarket also suffered a cyber attack and temporarily suspended trading. Security firm Hudson Rock said it discovered malicious code attempting to transfer assets in a script associated with third-party website monitoring tool DebugBear. The agency said the initial intrusion method and total losses in the Polymarket incident remain undetermined.
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