In brief
Binance announced a security breach that halted withdrawals and froze $3 billion in assets. The exchange reserved more than $6.34 billion, including $5 billion in impacted tokens, and pledged to cover all user losses. It is working with law‑enforcement and blockchain partners to recover the funds and will publish a technical post‑mortem once the investigation concludes.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Saturday that it has discovered a security incident that has forced it to freeze roughly $3 billion of users’ assets and temporarily suspend withdrawals.
In a statement issued to its customers, Binance said it has set aside more than $6.34 billion in company reserves—including its Secure Asset Fund for Users—to offset the loss, and it will cover any user losses that might result from the incident.
“Your funds are safe; Binance is covering the impact of this incident, not you,” the exchange wrote, reassuring customers that their deposits and normal trading activity remain unaffected.
Binance’s initial investigation found no evidence of wallet private‑key leaks, but the company has taken precautionary measures, revoking authorisations on affected addresses and tightening its withdrawal services.
Through cooperation with blockchain partners, Binance has frozen approximately $3 billion of the affected tokens on‑chain to help prevent further movement of the stolen assets.
The company is working closely with law‑enforcement agencies, token issuers, blockchain‑intelligence firms, and industry partners to track and recover the stolen tokens.
Withdrawal services have been put on hold as Binance conducts a comprehensive security overhaul of the withdrawal infrastructure and associated wallet addresses.
Binance said it will keep users informed about the restoration of withdrawals and will publish a detailed technical post‑mortem report once the investigation is finished. It also plans to release an updated proof‑of‑reserves report to confirm that all user balances are protected.
