Binance has temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals following a massive security breach estimated at $6.3 billion. The world's largest crypto exchange stated that hackers compromised an engineer's laptop to withdraw funds, though no user private keys were leaked. Approximately $3 billion in affected assets have been frozen on-chain so far.
Bitcoin dropped 4% to $77,229 and BNB fell 7.5% in the hours after the hack. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, previously assured customers their "funds are safe!" after the apparent hack. Zhao stepped down as CEO in 2023 as part of a deal with US authorities and pleaded guilty to money laundering charges.
The broader crypto market has struggled since a late-2025 sell-off wiped over $1 trillion from digital token combined capitalization. Hackers have repeatedly targeted exchanges, including a $390 million attack on Bitget and a $1.5 billion theft from Bybit last year. North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 50% increase from the prior year according to Chainalysis.
The attack on Binance came hours after Polymarket halted trading due to a third-party provider compromise. Tether's Paolo Ardoino reported freezing $1.5 billion of USDT, while Circle's Jeremy Allaire noted $800 million of USDC was frozen amid reports of a potential exploit at Binance.
Source: Financial Times Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing