Large transfers began leaving three Binance-labelled wallets on 29 October, putting the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes at the centre of a suspected theft.
The first transaction from Binance 14, at 4:24 p.m. ET, sent 167,464.25 ETH and about 1.615 billion USDT to a collection address. Twenty-four seconds later, Binance 16 sent 28,005.6 ETH to the same recipient.
Users said funds were being drained from the exchange’s wallets. Binance then said it was investigating reports of a potential security issue and temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals while its teams carried out security checks.
Ross O’Leary, a Binance spokesperson, said the company had “temporarily suspended withdrawals on multiple networks following a security incident as a precautionary measure”.
Binance froze digital assets worth around $3 billion to stop them being stolen as the investigation continued.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and largest shareholder, wrote on social media: “It does look like a hack on Binance”. Zhao stepped down as chief executive in 2023, though he remains the company’s largest shareholder.
Zhao said he expected all user funds to be fully covered. Binance said it would “cover all losses”, while warning that the amount frozen could rise as it worked with law enforcement and other partners.
The incident concerns Binance.com, the company’s global platform. Binance.US, which provides trading services for American residents, said its platform was unaffected.
Tether froze around $1.6 billion connected to the suspected breach. Its chief executive, Paolo Ardoino, said the funds were “related to a potential Binance exchange hack”.
Circle froze more than $800 million in assets linked to the incident. Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s chief executive, said the company was “closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance”.
Bitcoin fell by around 5 percent after the alerts, dropping below $77,000. Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.
The scale of the suspected theft remains unsettled. Chainalysis estimated that more than $5.9 billion had been stolen, while Binance has not identified those behind the apparent hack or said whether it has received any communication from them.
If confirmed, the theft would be the largest crypto-asset theft in history, exceeding the $1.5 billion heist carried out by the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group in 2025.
Binance has about $155 billion in assets under management, more than any other exchange, according to CoinMarketCap.
The exchange has urged users to distrust unofficial links, messages and requests for account information while the investigation continues.
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