Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, suffered a cyberattack last Thursday resulting in the theft of digital assets worth over $5 billion USD, marking the largest hack in crypto industry history.
/Official reportsestimate losses could exceed $6.3 billion USD (over 212.4 billion baht). According to the BBC, losses may surpass $5.9 billion USD, while CoinDesk reports stolen crypto assets from Binance total over $5.7 billion USD, including key assets such as
Following the incident, Binance issued a statement on platform X acknowledging reports of a potential security breach, confirming its team is urgently investigating the facts, and announcing a temporary suspension of withdrawals until security issues are resolved.
Yi He, Co-CEO of Binance, posted on X affirming that the platform will take full responsibility for all losses resulting from the hack.
“We will publish a detailed post-mortem report once the investigation is complete, and we ask everyone to follow only official Binance channels for updates,” Yi He stated on X.
However, the damage figures may be higher than initial estimates, as Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, disclosed it is revising upward the estimated value of stolen assets to about $5.9 billion USD based on asset values at the time of the incident.
News of Binance’s hack immediately sent shockwaves through digital asset markets, triggering steep declines across multiple cryptocurrencies amid investor concerns over exchange security and the broader impact on the digital asset ecosystem.
Price movements of major cryptocurrencies following the attack report include:
Additionally, the Binance hack marked the second cyberattack occurring on the same Thursday.
Earlier, Polymarket, a prediction market platform, announced that one of its third-party providers was breached, causing approximately $3 million USD in damages.
Though another security incident in crypto, Polymarket’s losses are significantly smaller compared to Binance’s.
A critical issue now is the effort to track and freeze stolen digital assets, turning into a race against time between hackers and crypto industry companies.
The BBC reported Binance has frozen digital assets worth about $3 billion USD to prevent further theft while investigating the security breach.
Data from Arkham indicates wallets linked to the Binance hack are moving assets through Uniswap (UNI), a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform.
These movements coincide with ongoing efforts to trace stolen funds and freeze the assets.
It was also found that the perpetrators used stolen USDT as collateral on Aave, a decentralized lending platform, to borrow at least 20,000 Wrapped Ether (WETH), worth approximately $44 million USD.
Wrapped Ether (WETH) is a token pegged to ETH’s value and usable across various DeFi protocols.
Meanwhile, executives from leading stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle confirmed they are closely monitoring the hack.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, revealed the company has already frozen over $1.57 billion USD in USDT related to the incident.
Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, stated that over $800 million USD in USDC has been frozen.
This action is crucial because in large-scale digital asset thefts, hackers often attempt to exchange freezeable assets like USDT and USDC for other cryptocurrencies lacking centralized issuers and thus cannot be frozen directly.
Platforms like Uniswap and Aave allow users to trade or borrow digital assets directly from their wallets without relying on centralized exchanges for transactions.
Therefore, moving assets through DeFi systems can complicate efforts to track and freeze stolen funds.
However, asset transfers through these platforms do not necessarily mean stolen funds cannot be frozen or recovered, as considerations include asset type, transaction paths, and related measures.
A key question after the incident is whether Binance has the financial strength to absorb such massive losses.
Data from DefiLlama shows Binance had approximately $144 billion USD in assets on its platform before the hack, meaning the stolen amount represents about 4% of total assets.
Binance also maintains a reserve fund for emergencies that could help offset some losses.
This fund, called the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), was established in 2018 to protect users against security breaches or other emergencies.
The SAFU currently holds Bitcoin worth about $1 billion USD, potentially usable to help cover losses and compensate affected users.
However, Binance has not yet confirmed whether SAFU funds will be used to reimburse losses from this incident.
Meanwhile, Binance co-founder CZ acknowledged the actual losses might be slightly higher than initially reported but reaffirmed the company’s commitment to cover all damages, stating, “The losses may be a bit higher, but the company will take full responsibility.”
Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute, a crypto market maker, commented on X that Binance remains financially strong enough to handle this event.
Ultimately, this incident is not just a multi-billion-dollar digital asset theft but also a critical test of Binance’s security, compensation capability, and user trust maintenance.
This is especially significant as the crypto industry seeks to build investor confidence and expand its role in mainstream finance.
Binance TH issued a statement confirming that customers’ digital assets in Thailand remain safe since Binance TH’s cold wallets are independently segregated from Binance’s main wallets, operating under separate legal entities and custody systems.
Nonetheless, for security reasons, Binance TH has temporarily suspended digital asset deposits and withdrawals while experts conduct security system reviews, with other platform services continuing as usual.
CoinDesk reports that the incident raises critical questions about the attackers behind the world’s largest crypto exchange breach.
Blockchain transaction investigator ZachXBT and crypto security firm Blockaid suggest North Korea is likely behind this attack, although this remains unconfirmed.
Binance founder CZ commented on the event, assuring that user funds remain safe and expressing expectation that the company will cover all losses.
CZ said, “User funds are still safe. It seems Binance was hacked. Although I no longer manage Binance, as a shareholder, I expect full compensation for all user funds.”
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