Binance Freezes Withdrawals Amid Massive Security Breach
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
The world's largest crypto exchange faces a potential multi-billion dollar theft, prompting industry giants to freeze assets.
Binance has confirmed to TechCrunch, as the outlet first reported, that it is investigating a security incident after users reported funds being drained from the exchange's wallets. As a precautionary measure, Binance spokesperson Ross O’Leary stated the company has temporarily suspended withdrawals across multiple networks.
While Binance told TechCrunch that user funds are "completely safe," founder and largest shareholder Changpeng Zhao posted on X that the company had likely been hacked. Zhao noted he expects funds to be "fully covered," though he offered no explanation for how that would occur.
The scale of the theft remains unconfirmed, but crypto watchers report at least $2 billion has been drained from Binance's internet-connected hot wallets. Some estimates suggest losses could exceed $5.7 billion. If these figures are verified, the event would likely be one of the largest breaches in cryptocurrency history, surpassing a record $1.4 billion theft from the exchange Bybit in 2025.
In response to the breach, Tether froze approximately $1.56 billion and Circle froze about $800 million in Tether as the assets moved through their networks. Binance has not disclosed if it has received communication from the unidentified hackers.
In a separate event reported by TechCrunch, the prediction market Polymarket briefly paused trading and withdrawals after a third-party software company, DebugBear, was compromised. Security researchers estimate that incident resulted in the theft of roughly $2 million in user funds.