Binance Freezes $3 Billion On-Chain After Suspected Breach

Cryptocurrency traders using Binance could not move money Thursday as the exchange suspended all deposits and withdrawals to run security checks, work with law enforcement and freeze funds. Bitcoin's price fell 3.2% Thursday evening to under $79,000.

Binance said the estimated total impact of the incident reached approximately $6.3 billion. The company has worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with roughly $3 billion frozen on-chain so far.

The company's initial investigation points to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions, according to Binance's account on X. The company also said it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak.

A Binance spokesperson said user funds are completely safe. Security teams are reviewing relevant information with urgency, the spokesperson said in a statement, and updates will be provided through official Binance channels once information is verified.

Changpeng Zhao, who founded the exchange in 2017, posted on X Thursday that user funds are safe, but added that the incident does look like a hack on Binance. Zhao stepped down as CEO in 2023 after pleading guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025. Zhao was released from prison last year after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, the first person ever sentenced to prison time for violations of that law. He wrote that while he does not manage Binance anymore, as a shareholder he expects all user funds will be fully covered.

Stablecoin providers acted alongside the exchange. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to a potential Binance exchange hack. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote on X that the company had frozen the equivalent of more than $800 million in currency associated with the incident in coordination with law enforcement.

The extent of damage and whether funds were taken had not been confirmed by Binance. The exchange said it will release more technical details after its investigation is complete and facts are fully verified. Binance stated its teams work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets.

Zhao and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family's crypto enterprises.