Binance Suspends Deposits and Withdrawals After Security Breach; Estimated Impact at $6.3 Billion

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Friday announced the temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals as it investigates a security incident whose estimated financial impact stands at around $6.3 billion.

In a statement, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange said its preliminary investigation indicated that the incident may have involved a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. The breach allegedly enabled an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.

Binance said it had found no evidence of any compromise involving wallet private keys. It added that a detailed technical post-mortem would be published after the investigation is completed and the facts are fully verified.

The exchange said it had been working with blockchain partners to freeze the affected assets, with approximately $3 billion reportedly frozen on-chain so far.

Binance also assured users that their funds were safe and said all losses would be covered through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and the company's own funds.

As an immediate precaution, the exchange temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks were underway. It also revoked authorisation for the affected address and engaged law enforcement agencies and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover the funds.

The company said its teams were working round the clock to resolve the issue and that it was cooperating with law enforcement agencies to identify those responsible and bring them to justice.

Binance further said it would publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation process was complete.

The disclosure triggered a sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin falling below $77,000 to its lowest level since September. Other digital tokens also came under pressure amid concerns that the suspected breach could turn out to be the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.

If confirmed, the estimated $6.3 billion impact would far exceed the $1.5 billion Bybit hack reported in February 2025.

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