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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has confirmed a major hacking incident, following which more than $2.5bn worth of digital assets were frozen in an effort to prevent their theft.
The company, which operates the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, also announced the suspension of trading on some products.
Despite the security breach, Binance assured customers that their deposits and holdings remained protected.
“User funds are completely safe,” the company said.
The incident triggered concerns across the cryptocurrency industry, with several experts suggesting that hackers might have gained access to a substantial amount of assets.
Former Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao, who remains a majority shareholder in the company, also acknowledged the possibility of an attack.
“It does look like a hack on Binance,” he said.
Two major cryptocurrency firms subsequently disclosed that they had frozen substantial amounts of digital assets potentially connected to the incident.
Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, said his company had blocked approximately $1.6bn in assets linked to what he described as a potential attack on Binance.
Jeremy Allaire, head of Circle, also announced that his company had frozen more than $800m worth of USDC.
Tether issues USDT, while Circle is behind USDC. Both are stablecoins, a category of digital currencies designed to maintain a relatively stable value by linking their prices to traditional currencies such as the US dollar.
The scale of the reported incident had raised concerns that it could become the largest cryptocurrency theft recorded.
Before Binance publicly confirmed the attack, several industry observers had already raised alarms that hackers might have breached the exchange.
Some analysts suggested that the potential losses could exceed the $1.5bn worth of cryptocurrency stolen from the Bybit exchange in February 2025. That incident was attributed to hackers linked to North Korea.
