Biggest-ever crypto hack impacts $6.3 billion as Binance works to contain fallout
Binance estimated the impact of a security incident at $6.3 billion, with around $3 billion in crypto assets frozen, and pledged to cover all losses.
Key points
- Binance said a security incident had an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, with about $3 billion in crypto assets frozen so far.
- Binance said the incident may have involved a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop that let an attacker submit unauthorized withdrawals.
- Bitcoin fell more than 4% to $77,994.96 on Friday as the hack weighed on crypto markets.
Binance said Friday that a security incident had an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, with around $3 billion in cryptocurrency assets frozen so far. The exchange pledged to cover all losses.
Binance said its initial investigation suggests the incident may have involved a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The company said customer funds remained safe.
Steps taken by the exchange
Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorization and enlisted law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and recover funds. Co-founder Yi He said deposits were unaffected and continued to operate normally, and the exchange expects to begin resuming withdrawal services within the next 48 hours.
Binance said it would cover all losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company funds. It also said it would publish a technical report and an updated Proof of Reserves after remediation.
We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak.
— Binance
Freezes and market reaction
Several crypto firms moved to freeze funds tied to the hack. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company froze more than 800 million in USD Coin, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm froze more than 1.5 billion of its stablecoin, and Ripple's Jack McDonald said it was freezing affected RLUSD funds. Yi He later said Ripple helped halt the movement of $200 million linked to the possible attack.
Arkham Intelligence linked nearly $6 billion in digital assets, including bitcoin, ether, solana and various stablecoins, to 55 wallet addresses tied to the potential exploit. Bitcoin fell more than 4% to $77,994.96 on Friday, and Circle shares tumbled about 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday.
