Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that a “security incident” on its platform has impacted about $6.3bn (£4.7bn) of assets.
The world’s biggest crypto exchange said about half of those assets have been frozen with the help of other platforms, adding that it will “cover all losses”.
Early checks show the suspected hack may have involved an engineer’s laptop that had been compromised, which allowed an attacker to make unauthorised withdrawals, Binance said in a series of online alerts.
The incident is potentially the biggest ever crypto heist, eclipsing a record-setting $1.5bn hack on the Bybit exchange in 2025, which was linked to North Korea.
The security incident concerns Binance.com, while much smaller crypto platform Binance.US which provides trading services specifically for American residents, said its platform is not affected by the issue.
“It does look like a hack,” Binance’s former boss Changpeng Zhao said on X.
Zhao, who is also known as CZ, no longer manages the firm but remains a key shareholder.
Binance said earlier that the amount of funds frozen may continue to increase while investigations are underway.
“We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice,” Binance said, urging users to rely only on its official channels for updates.
It added that it will release a full report once its investigation is complete.
In a series of posts, Yi He, Binance’s co-chief executive, thanked various cryptocurrency issuers for freezing their assets.
“Safety first: withdrawals are currently disabled until the environment is confirmed to be secure,” she said.
Bitcoin dropped by more than 4% following the alerts. The price of other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.
