Binance also suspended trading on Binance Alpha, alongside all deposits and withdrawals, as it investigates a potential security breach and says frozen crypto assets total $3 billion.
Crypto firm Ripple froze roughly $200 million in funds linked to Binance’s security incident, Binance co-founder Yi He said in CNA’s account. Binance says its frozen-assets total has reached $3 billion while it investigates a potential security breach.
An earlier report said $2.54 billion in crypto assets had been frozen.
Binance had already temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals during security checks, preventing customers from moving funds through those services. The exchange also temporarily suspended trading on its Binance Alpha platform as a precaution.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated that more than $5.9 billion was stolen in the Binance incident, the BBC reported. Digital asset advisory firm Glassnode estimated that the suspected hack concerns $5.3 billion in crypto—not a confirmed amount stolen. Binance has not disclosed how much was potentially stolen.
Binance said the security breach had an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, with about $3 billion in affected assets located as it worked with partners to freeze them. Located assets should not be confused with recovered funds. According to Binance, an initial investigation suggested the breach may have begun with an engineer’s hacked laptop, allowing an attacker to access a system and make unauthorized withdrawals; the cause remains preliminary.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM assessed with “high confidence” that North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking unit carried out the attack on Binance, Al Jazeera reported. That attribution remains unconfirmed: Binance told the outlet it was working with law enforcement partners to establish the perpetrators’ identities.
Chainalysis estimated that approximately $5,912,000,000 was stolen in the Binance incident, valued at the time of theft, The Hacker News reported. This is Chainalysis’s theft estimate, not Binance’s valuation of affected assets.
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Binance said its initial investigation suggests the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance has not explained how the laptop was compromised, and the proposed mechanism remains preliminary.
Chainalysis said it had “high confidence” that North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking group was linked to the Binance attack, the BBC reported. Binance did not directly answer the BBC’s questions about a possible North Korean link, saying it was working with law enforcement to identify those responsible.
The amounts describe frozen assets, not a confirmed theft or recovery total. The individual companies' figures should not be added to Binance’s total because their overlap is unclear.
| Company | Frozen assets | Who gave the figure |
|---|---|---|
| Binance | $3 billion | Binance |
| Tether | Nearly $1,570,000,000 | Tether |
| Circle | More than $800 million | Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire |
| Ripple | Roughly $200 million | Binance co-founder Yi He |
Ripple executive Jack McDonald said the company was monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance, freezing affected funds and coordinating with relevant parties.
Former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao said the incident looked like a hack. Miguel Morel, chief executive of blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, said the exact cause had not been confirmed.
Yi He pledged that Binance would cover all hacking losses. Binance said user funds remained safe and that the frozen amount could increase as it worked with law enforcement and other partners to trace and freeze additional assets.
Binance said withdrawals would resume once the issue was fully resolved and promised to publish a full account of the incident once the investigation was complete.
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