• Analysis
Binance security breach hits $6.3 billion in assets, potentially the record crypto heist
Binance said on Thursday that a security breach had affected an estimated $6.3 billion in assets, potentially the biggest cryptocurrency heist on record, while Bitcoin and other digital currencies fell in early Asian trading on Friday.
How the breach unfolded
The Binance security breach, announced by the exchange on Thursday, affected an estimated $6.3 billion in assets and could rank as the largest crypto heist ever recorded, according to the company's own statement. Analytics firm Chainalysis and other industry experts said the incident could be the world's biggest crypto theft.
According to an initial investigation, the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of Binance's engineers, which let an attacker access a system and make unauthorised withdrawals.
- •Binance said it worked with partners to freeze the affected assets, with about $3 billion located so far.
- •The exchange said it had recovered or frozen about $3 billion in total.
- •Binance gave no update on the status of the remaining $3.3 billion.
- •Co-founder Yi He said the company would cover "all hacking losses".
Miguel Morel, CEO of blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, said data indicated billions of dollars appeared to have been hacked from Binance by an unknown actor.
Bitcoin and crypto prices slide
Markets reacted quickly. In early Asian trading on Friday, Bitcoin dropped more than 3% to a six-week low of $76,368. Ether fell more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178. BNB, Binance's own token, was down 5% over the past 24 hours at $709.70, according to market aggregator CoinGecko.
Crypto-related shares also fell. Coinbase Global slid 4.8% and shares of bitcoin buyer Strategy dropped nearly 6% in extended US trading.
Industry freezes stolen funds
Other crypto firms moved to lock down the stolen funds. Tether said it had frozen nearly $1.57 billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze more than $800 million. Ripple froze roughly $200 million in funds, according to Yi He.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to Donald Trump and his family, said on Thursday it worked with cryptocurrency custodian BitGo to freeze funds stolen in what it described as a Binance hack. Jack McDonald, Ripple's senior vice president of stablecoins, said the company was closely monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance and was freezing affected funds.
Yi He said $27 million in stablecoins and about $2 million worth of World Liberty tokens had also been frozen.
The scale of the theft drew stark assessments from market participants.
"It's the biggest hack in history," said Aravind Srinivasan, head of large crypto market maker GSR's systematic OTC business.
Some analysts warned the fallout could reach beyond Binance. "It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralised exchanges," said Tim Sun, senior researcher at Hong Kong-based HashKey Group. Bernardo Brites, CEO of Trace Finance, said AI can find vulnerabilities faster than they can be fixed, making hacks harder to counter, and that users will likely move away from smaller and medium-sized exchanges that could not cover a meaningful hack.
The theft dwarfs recent industry losses. Last year attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to TRM Labs researchers. In September, exchange Bitget said roughly $350 million in crypto had been stolen from its platform.
Exchange suspends deposits and withdrawals
Binance said user funds remain safe and, as a precaution, all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while security teams conduct checks, secure wallet infrastructure and trace assets. The exchange runs a secure asset fund, a reserve held entirely in bitcoin that is intended to protect user assets in cases of security breaches, according to its website.
The company is one of the largest in the industry, with 335 million registered users globally and about $162.8 billion in assets under custody as of its 2025 annual report.
Separately, Binance.US, a distinct exchange, said it was not affected by the incident, and Coinbase said it was unaffected while monitoring the situation. In an unrelated incident earlier on Thursday, prediction market Polymarket temporarily halted trading after a security incident involving a third-party provider, later resumed trading and said it would fully reimburse affected traders.
