Binance investigates potential multibillion-dollar hack

Binance is investigating a potential multibillion-dollar security breach involving one of its Ethereum wallets, after suspicious transfers prompted stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle to reportedly freeze nearly $1.8 billion in assets.

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph on Thursday that the exchange was investigating reports of a potential security issue but had not confirmed any impact on user funds. The spokesperson said its security teams were reviewing the activity and would provide updates once more information was verified.

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said the activity appeared to be a hack, adding that Tether and Circle had frozen approximately $971 million and $823 million, respectively. Zhao, who no longer manages the exchange, said he expected all user funds to be fully covered.

The concerns were first raised by blockchain researcher Spreek, who posted on X that assets from a Binance-linked Ethereum wallet had been transferred to a newly created address through a contract call allegedly funded by Tornado Cash. Spreek later reported that wallets connected to the transfers had begun selling Tether (USDT) through decentralized exchanges.

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence identified a collection of wallets labeled “binance-hacker-1029” holding approximately $5.84 billion in digital assets Thursday afternoon. The figure represents the wallets’ reported holdings rather than a confirmed estimate of stolen funds.

Source: Arkham Intellegence

Tether, Circle freeze over $2.36B as Binance outflows reach $3.3B

At approximately 5:11 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, blockchain security firm Blockaid said in an X post that it had identified roughly $3.3 billion in suspicious transfers involving Binance-linked wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche.

The firm said the activity included approximately $2.5 billion transferred from “Binance 14” and “Binance 16,” another $780 million in USDC from a Binance smart account, and smaller transfers on Arbitrum and Avalanche.

Shortly afterward, Tether and Circle, the two largest stablecoin issuers by market capitalization, announced on X that they had frozen a combined $2.36 billion in tokens linked to the suspected incident.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said at 5:18 p.m. Eastern that the company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with law enforcement and would continue supporting the investigation.

A few minutes later, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT linked to the potential exploit.