Binance has faced a heist exceeding $6.3 Bn, with around $3 Bn secured and frozen on-chain by the digital currency exchange
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform by volume, with a significant presence in India
As per Binance, the breach took place after an attacker gained access to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer and submitted unauthorised withdrawal transactions
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reported a security breach affecting an estimated $6.3 Bn in assets, in what appears to be the largest crypto heist on record. The exchange said it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze around $3 Bn on-chain.
Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals while it completes security checks. It has also revoked the affected address authorisation and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and recover funds. Withdrawals are expected to be restored in the next 48 hours, Binance said.
The exchange said it would cover all losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds. It also plans to publish updated proof of reserves after completing remediation.
Binance said its initial investigation suggests that a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer may have allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
The exchange said it had found no evidence of wallet private keys being leaked. It will publish a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the findings have been verified.
Cryptocurrency news platform Watcher.Guru reported that the affected assets included Bitcoin, Ether, Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, and TRON, among others. Its tally put the Bitcoin outflow alone at around $1.45 Bn.
In an earlier X post, Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao said Tether had frozen approximately $971 Mn and Circle around $823 Mn linked to the suspected hack. Those were initial figures: subsequent reporting put Tether’s freeze at more than $1.5 Bn.
However, experts are claiming based on on-chain data that the hacker was able to deposit the stolen assets on decentralised liquidity platform Aave before they were frozen, and borrow Ether against them. While stablecoins like USDT and USDC can be frozen due to being controlled by a centralised authority, Ether is more decentralised and hence can’t be frozen on-chain.
In response, Aave said it has suspended new deposits and borrowing across its V3 and V4 lending markets.
Fallout Reaches Other Platforms
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform by volume, with a significant presence in India. It restarted operations in the country in 2024 after tightening its reporting rules and registering with the Financial Intelligence Unit.
The Binance breach followed a separate incident at prediction market platform Polymarket, where around $2.6 Mn was reportedly drained. Polymarket said a third-party provider had been compromised and promised to reimburse affected users.
In light of these developments, Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX announced that it has halted new trades on its futures desk as a precautionary measure.
Separately, the development comes a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced investigations into alleged unauthorised cross-border crypto transfers worth more than ₹4,940 Cr.
The investigations concern alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) involving crypto platforms Mudrex and Saber.money, along with decentralised finance protocol Instadapp and its associated platform Fluid.
Source: Inc42
