Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the world’s largest platform by daily trading volume, announced on Thursday that it had suffered a major cyberattack, with more than $2.5 billion in funds frozen in an attempt to prevent further theft.
Following the security breach, the company issued a series of somewhat contradictory statements on social media platform X. It assured users that “user funds are completely safe” while also pledging to “cover all losses”, reports AFP.
Although the exact scale of the theft was not immediately clear, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated that around $5.912 billion had been stolen at the time of the attack.
If confirmed, the figure would be nearly four times the previous record of $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit platform in February 2025. That attack was attributed to hackers affiliated with North Korea.
Operations suspended amid investigation
At around 0030 GMT on Friday, Binance confirmed that all deposits and withdrawals had been “temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement”.
The exchange said the amount of frozen assets “may continue to increase” as its teams work with law enforcement agencies, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional funds.
Neither Binance nor industry analysts have so far explained how the cyberattack occurred.
Industry leaders confirm asset freezes
Former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao, who no longer manages the company but remains its majority shareholder, acknowledged that “it does look like a hack on Binance”. He estimated that the total losses could be “a bit higher” than $1 billion.
Major digital currency issuers also moved quickly to freeze funds linked to the incident.
Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, which issues the USDT cryptocurrency, said his company had frozen around $1.6 billion “related to a potential Binance exchange hack”.
Similarly, Jeremy Allaire, head of Circle, confirmed that his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC.
Both USDT and USDC are stablecoins, digital currencies designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to traditional currencies such as the US dollar.
The US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cryptocurrency prices fall amid AI security concerns
Reports that hackers had breached the exchange had circulated among industry observers for several hours before Binance officially confirmed the attack.
News of the breach triggered a broad decline in major cryptocurrency prices, while stablecoins remained unaffected because of their limited price fluctuations.
By around 0025 GMT, Bitcoin had fallen nearly 5 per cent, Ethereum had dropped almost 6 per cent, and Binance’s native token, BNB, had plunged nearly 10 per cent.
The attack comes amid growing concerns among industry observers that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) models could undermine existing cryptography and IT security protocols.
