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Binance suspends deposits and withdrawals after $6.3 billion security incident

Published

Binance estimates the total impact at $6.3 billion and says around $3 billion in assets is frozen. The exchange says an initial investigation points to a compromised laptop, and it pledges to cover all losses.

Binance said an initial investigation suggests a compromised laptop of a DevOps engineer may have let an attacker submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions. The company said it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak. It said user funds remained safe.

Tether said it froze over 1.567 billion USDT, and Circle said it froze over 800 million USDC. Binance said it will cover all losses with its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company funds. Co-founder Yi He said the exchange expects to start resuming withdrawals within the next 48 hours.

Glassnode, a blockchain analytics firm, used on-chain data to estimate that about $5.3 billion in assets was drained. Binance did not comment on that figure. Former chief executive Changpeng Zhao said the incident looked like a hack, and Binance promised a full post-mortem after its investigation.

Key facts

Who
Binance (world's biggest crypto exchange, suspended deposits and withdrawals after…); Glassnode (blockchain analytics firm that cited on-chain data); Circle (said it froze over 800 million USDC); Tether (said it froze over 1.567 billion USDT)
What
Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, has temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals. The company estimated the total impact of the apparent security breach at $6.3bn.
When
30 October 2026
Status
Reported

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