Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it had been hit by a potential $6.3 billion heist — possibly the largest in history — in an attack that may have involved North Korean hackers.
The world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume issued a series of sometimes conflicting posts on X. Binance said user funds were “completely safe,” while also promising to “cover all losses.”
In a statement late Thursday, Binance put the estimated total impact at “around $6.3 billion,” making the incident potentially one of the biggest cryptocurrency security breaches ever recorded.
The full extent of the damage remained unclear, and Binance did not explicitly confirm that funds had been stolen. The company said its teams were “working around the clock” to address the security incident.
TRM Labs, an artificial intelligence-powered blockchain investigations firm, said aspects of the attack bore similarities to previous hacks linked to North Korea.
A Binance spokesman said: “Rest assured that user funds are completely safe.
“Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information,” the statement continued.
Binance said it had coordinated with blockchain partners to freeze assets connected to the incident, with approximately $3 billion frozen on-chain so far.
“Binance´s initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer´s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions,” the company wrote.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it was the target of a $6.3 billion heist, believed to be the largest ever recorded. Founder Changpeng Zhao is pictured
Binance said late Thursday that the estimated total impact exceeded $6 billion
“We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak,” the company added.
The exchange said it would release additional technical details after the investigation had concluded and the facts were “fully verified.”
“Our teams work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets,” Binance said in a separate post earlier Thursday.
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The company also temporarily halted all deposits and withdrawals while it carried out security checks, froze assets and cooperated with law enforcement agencies.
Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle said Thursday that they had frozen funds linked to the incident.
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote on X that the company had frozen the equivalent of more than $800 million in currency associated with the incident, acting “in coordination with law enforcement.”
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that his company had frozen the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency tied to “a potential Binance exchange hack.”
Bitcoin fell 3.2 percent on Thursday evening, dropping below $79,000.
Changpeng Zhao founded Binance in 2017. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to a felony after failing to prevent money laundering on the platform and stepped down as CEO. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025.
Zhao posted on X on Thursday that ‘User funds are safe!’ but added that the incident ‘does look like a hack on Binance.’ He added that while he doesn´t manage Binance anymore, ‘as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.’
Binance also said all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while it conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement
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Zhao was released from prison in 2024 after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
He was the first person ever sentenced to prison time for violations of that law, which requires US financial institutions to know who their customers are, to monitor transactions and to file reports of suspicious activity.
Prosecutors said no one had ever violated the regulations to the extent Zhao did. Zhao and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family´s crypto enterprises.