Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has coordinated with industry partners to freeze assets linked to a reported $6.3 billion security breach, with approximately $3 billion located so far. The company has not provided an update on the remaining $3.3 billion, while co-founder Yi He said Binance would cover all losses resulting from the hack.
According to Binance, an initial investigation suggests the breach may have originated from a compromised laptop belonging to one of its engineers. The incident allegedly enabled an attacker to access an internal system and carry out unauthorised withdrawals.
Cryptocurrency markets reacted sharply during early Asian trading on Friday, with major digital assets recording significant losses.
Bitcoin fell more than 3 per cent to a six-week low of $76,368, while Ether declined by a similar margin to a two-month low of $2,178. BNB, the token originally launched as Binance Coin and used partly to pay trading fees on the platform, dropped 5 per cent over 24 hours to $709.70, according to CoinGecko.
In extended US trading, shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global fell 4.8 per cent, while those of Bitcoin-focused investment firm Strategy declined nearly 6 per cent.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis and other industry specialists suggested the incident could rank among the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history.
“It’s the biggest hack in history,” said Aravind Srinivasan, head of the systematic over-the-counter business at major crypto market maker GSR.
Analysts warned that the breach could have consequences beyond the potential loss of funds, particularly as the cryptocurrency market has already faced pressure from elevated US interest rates and weaker demand from exchange-traded fund investors.
Tim Sun, a senior researcher at Hong Kong-based HashKey Group, said the incident could weaken investor confidence and prompt renewed scrutiny of the security of assets held on centralised exchanges, alongside concerns about counterparty exposure, solvency and liquidity.
Binance, which provides services for buying, selling and trading digital assets, reported 335 million registered users worldwide and approximately $162.8 billion in assets under custody in its 2025 annual report.
The exchange said user funds remained safe, while announcing a temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals as security teams investigated the incident.
The company said its teams were working to secure wallet infrastructure, trace affected assets and coordinate with law enforcement agencies and industry partners.
Binance operates a Secure Asset Fund for Users, a reserve held entirely in Bitcoin and designed to provide protection for users in certain security-related incidents.
Bernardo Brites, chief executive of payments and stablecoin infrastructure company Trace Finance, said advances in artificial intelligence could make cyberattacks increasingly difficult to prevent because vulnerabilities might be identified faster than organisations could fix them.
Brites also suggested that users could move away from smaller and medium-sized exchanges if concerns about their ability to withstand major security incidents continued to grow.
Several cryptocurrency companies reported freezing funds potentially linked to the breach.
Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen nearly $1.57 billion in associated assets, while Circle reported freezing more than $800 million.
World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture linked to US President Donald Trump and his family, said it had worked with digital asset custodian BitGo to freeze funds connected to what it described as a Binance hack.
Yi said approximately $27 million in stablecoins and around $2 million worth of World Liberty tokens had been frozen.
Ripple also froze approximately $200 million in funds, according to Yi. Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president of stablecoins, said the company was monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance, freezing affected funds and coordinating with relevant parties.
Miguel Morel, chief executive of blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, said available data indicated that billions of dollars may have been stolen from Binance by an unidentified attacker.
The incident comes amid a series of major cryptocurrency thefts. Researchers at TRM Labs reported that attackers stole approximately $2.9 billion in cryptocurrency across nearly 150 incidents last year.
In September, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget reported that around $350 million in digital assets had been stolen from its platform, highlighting persistent cybersecurity risks across the industry.
Authorities have also warned that organised criminal groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to transfer money across borders outside traditional financial systems.
Binance.US, a separate exchange operating in the United States, said it was not affected by the incident. Coinbase also confirmed that its operations were unaffected and said it was monitoring developments.
In a separate incident on Thursday, prediction market platform Polymarket temporarily suspended trading following a security issue involving a third-party provider. The platform subsequently resumed trading and said affected traders would receive full reimbursement.
