Binance Hack Crypto exchange faces suspected $5.9 billion theft as billions frozen

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reported a major cyberattack, with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimating that approximately $5.912 billion was stolen.

The company, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, said it had frozen more than $2.5 billion in funds as part of efforts to prevent further losses.

In a series of sometimes contradictory statements on social media platform X, Binance insisted that user funds were safe while also pledging to cover all losses resulting from the incident.

The full scale of the alleged theft remained unclear. However, Chainalysis said its preliminary estimate placed the amount stolen at approximately $5.912 billion at the time of the attack.

If confirmed, the figure would be nearly four times the $1.5 billion stolen from cryptocurrency platform Bybit in February 2025. That attack was attributed to hackers linked to North Korea.

Binance said on Friday that it had temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while its security teams conducted checks, froze funds and worked with law enforcement agencies.

The company added that the amount of frozen assets could increase as it coordinated with law enforcement, cryptocurrency issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and other industry partners to trace and secure additional funds.

Neither Binance nor industry observers had provided an explanation of how the attack occurred.

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Former Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao, who remains a majority shareholder but no longer manages the company, said the incident appeared to be a hack. He estimated that the total losses could be slightly higher than $1 billion.

Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said his company had frozen approximately $1.6 billion linked to a potential attack on Binance.

Meanwhile, Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC.

USDT, issued by Tether, and USDC, issued by Circle, are stablecoins designed to maintain a value linked to the US dollar.

The US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had not immediately responded to requests for comment.

The incident also triggered a sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin fell nearly 5 per cent, Ethereum dropped almost 6 per cent and Binance’s BNB token lost around 10 per cent.

The declines came after industry observers raised concerns about the suspected attack before Binance publicly confirmed the incident. Stablecoins were largely unaffected because their values are designed to remain close to the US dollar.

The attack comes amid growing concerns about cybersecurity risks as artificial intelligence models become more capable and potentially create new challenges for cryptography and information technology security systems.