Binance investigates potential hack as $2.54 billion in assets is frozen

The exchange's statement said that the security team is reviewing the available information: "At this stage, we have not confirmed any impact on user funds." Clients were asked not to open unofficial links and not to share account credentials with strangers. For the duration of the investigation, Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals, as well as trading on the Binance Alpha platform. Exchange co-founder Yi He stated that the company will compensate for all losses resulting from the hack.

Zhao, who no longer leads Binance but remains its largest shareholder, wrote that as a shareholder he expects user funds to be fully covered. According to him, Tether blocked about $971 million, and Circle blocked about $823 million. According to Reuters data cited by Kursiv, Tether accounted for nearly $1.57 billion, Circle for more than $800 million, and about another $200 million was blocked by Ripple.

As 3DNews reports, citing blockchain data, at 23:24 Moscow time on October 29, the "Binance 14" wallet transferred to a new address about 167,500 ETH, 1.615 billion USDT, and more than 60 other types of assets — totaling approximately $2.5 billion. 17 minutes later, 780 million USDC arrived at the same address. The extent of the damage has not been officially determined: according to The Block, about $3.55 billion arrived at one of the suspicious addresses, while Conor Grogan of Coinbase estimated the potential volume of drained funds at $5.8 billion.

Against this backdrop, Bitcoin dropped below $79,000: falling by 3.2% according to Associated Press data cited by Kursiv, and by 3.7% according to 3DNews citing Bloomberg.