Binance investigates possible hack involving up to $5.8 billion in crypto

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a possible breach involving up to $5.8 billion in digital assets. If the theft is confirmed, it would be the largest cryptocurrency hack ever recorded. The current record belongs to North Korean hackers, who stole $1.5 billion from the Bybit exchange in February 2025.

Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle have already frozen more than $2.3 billion in assets tied to the incident.

The exchange's position

A Binance spokesperson told BleepingComputer that the exchange is investigating reports of a potential security issue. According to the spokesperson, user funds are "completely safe," security teams are urgently reviewing all relevant information, and updates will be posted on official channels once the data has been verified. The exchange also urged customers to beware of scammers, avoid unofficial links, and ignore requests for account details.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) wrote on X that the incident appeared to be a hack. He noted, however, that he no longer runs the exchange, and said he expects user funds to be fully covered.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino reported freezing more than 1.567 billion USDT linked to the possible hack. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire confirmed the company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC and added that Circle is coordinating with law enforcement.

Billions moved from hot wallets

The statements came after reports that billions of dollars had been moved from several Binance hot wallets to a newly created Ethereum address.

According to transaction analysis shared on X by crypto journalist StarPlatinum, a Binance wallet known as "Binance 14" sent roughly $2.53 billion across 64 different tokens. Twenty-four seconds later, another $174.4 million left a second Binance wallet. A later update claimed a third wallet sent 780 million USDC to the same address, bringing the total to approximately $3.48 billion.

Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence is tracking 55 addresses grouped under the label "binance-hacker-1029." Their combined holdings are valued at about $5.78 billion: roughly $1.77 billion in USDT, $1.44 billion in Bitcoin, $876 million in Ethereum, and $823 million in USDC. Blockchain explorer Etherscan has labeled the initial receiving address "Binance Hot Wallet Exploiter 2," tagging it with both Exploit and Heist.

What remains unknown

Arkham's $5.78 billion figure reflects the value of all assets held across the tracked wallets, not a confirmed amount stolen from Binance. The exchange has not yet said whether the transfers were unauthorized, how a breach might have occurred, or how much in total may have been stolen. The story is still developing.

Source: Bleeping Computer