Binance suspends withdrawals after $6.3 billion security breach
Binance says a security breach had an estimated $6.3 billion impact, with about $3 billion frozen; deposits and withdrawals were suspended during its investigation.
By Web3 Hub Newsroom2 min read
Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals on Thursday after a security breach with an estimated $6.3 billion impact, the exchange said, as it worked to freeze assets and investigate unauthorized withdrawals.
The Associated Press reported Binance’s estimate and its initial account of the breach. The company said roughly $3 billion had been frozen on-chain and that its initial investigation pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which may have given an attacker access to a service container. Binance said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were exposed.
How much was stolen, and what has been frozen?
Binance’s estimated impact was about $6.3 billion. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs separately estimated that about $6.36 billion had moved out of Binance wallets across ten blockchains, mostly within about 20 minutes, according to the AP.
CoinDesk reported that Binance said about $3 billion of assets had been frozen, including USDT and USDC stablecoins. The freezing blocks transfers from affected addresses, though it does not establish that all remaining funds can be recovered.
Who does Binance suspect, and what happens next?
TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which it described as a North Korean hacking unit, and said it had high confidence in that assessment. Binance told the AP it was working with law enforcement to confirm who was responsible; the exchange has not publicly confirmed the attackers’ identity.
Binance said user funds were safe and promised to cover losses. The AP reported that withdrawals were expected to resume in the next day or two, while Binance said it would share technical details after its investigation was complete.