New York (AFP) – Cryptocurrency platform Binance said Thursday it had fallen victim to a major hack and indicated that more than $2.5 billion in funds had been frozen in an effort to prevent a massive theft. The company — the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes — posted a series of sometimes contradictory messages on X, insisting that “user funds are completely safe” but also saying it would “cover all losses.”
The scope of the heist was not immediately known, but blockchain analytics company Chainalysis said its “current estimate on amount stolen is approx $5.912B at time of theft.” That would be almost four times the amount stolen in what has been the biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind to date: $1.5 billion taken in February 2025 from the Bybit platform — an incident attributed to hackers affiliated with North Korea.
At about 0030 GMT Friday, Binance said all deposits and withdrawals had been “temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement.” “This figure may continue to increase as our teams work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms, and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets,” the company said. Neither the company nor industry observers offered any explanation as to how the cyberattack might have occurred.
“It does look like a hack on Binance,” said former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the group but remains a majority shareholder. He estimated that the total losses could be “a bit higher” than $1 billion. Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether — a company that issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT — said his firm froze about $1.6 billion “related to a potential Binance exchange hack.” Circle boss Jeremy Allaire said his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC. USDT and USDC are both “stablecoins,” or digital currencies whose value is linked to a traditional currency, the US dollar.
The US Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
– Crypto prices tumble – For several hours before Binance confirmed the attack, several industry observers said hackers had managed to reach the platform. The prices of most major cryptocurrencies fell on the news, except for the stablecoins, which by definition can only fluctuate within tight margins. At about 0025 GMT, bitcoin had lost nearly five percent, Ethereum fell nearly six percent, and BNB, native to Binance, tumbled nearly 10 percent. The cyberattack on Binance comes as many observers express worries that the ever-expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) models could compromise cryptography and IT security protocols.
© 2024 AFP
