Live Updates: Binance says $2.54 billion frozen after hack

Follow live updates as Binance says $2.54 billion in assets has been frozen after a multibillion-dollar hack, with further freezes possible as investigators trace funds.

What we know about the Binance hack:

• Binance says the verified total frozen is $2.54 billion and could increase as investigators trace additional assets.
• Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals and deposits as it investigates the security breach.
• An Arkham Intelligence tracker showed about $5.84 billion in assets across wallets linked to the hack. The final loss remains undetermined.
• Circle, Tether, Ripple and World Liberty Financial have helped to freeze millions in stablecoins.
• The incident did not impact Binance.US.

Oct. 30 at 12:26 am UTC

Blockaid suspects Binance hack involved private key ‘misuse,’ not theft

The suspected multi-billion-dollar Binance hack may have involved attackers manipulating the exchange’s transaction-signing signature rather than stealing private keys, according to Blockaid co-founder and CEO Ido Ben-Natan.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ben-Natan said Blockaid’s preliminary assessment pointed to “key misuse,” in which attackers trick or compromise a signing system into authorizing malicious transactions without extracting the underlying private key.

“It seems to be… a compromise of signing infrastructure. We don’t think a key was leaked,” he said.

Ben-Natan said this was a preliminary assessment, drawing on their experience with similar attacks and their observations of the onchain activity.

Arkham CEO Miguel Morel said the attack appears to be ongoing.

Oct. 30 at 12:07 am UTC

Binance says deposits temporarily suspended

Binance said it has temporarily suspended deposits as it conducts security checks, freezes funds and coordinates with law enforcement. It previously confirmed it had suspended withdrawals.

“We are working around the clock and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete,” the company said, adding it will “cover all losses.”

Earlier, Binance also said it had temporarily suspended Binance Alpha trading.

Oct. 30 at 12:07 am UTC

Wintermute and GSR disclose Binance exposure

Crypto trading firms Wintermute and GSR disclosed exposure to Binance but said they did not expect major disruption to their businesses.

The firms are market makers, which place buy and sell orders on exchanges to help other traders complete transactions. A disruption to their operations could make trading harder or more expensive across crypto markets.

GSR CEO Xin Song said its Binance exposure was less than 5% of its net equity, meaning the value of its assets minus its liabilities. He said GSR was working with Binance to understand the incident and identify ways to help.

Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said his firm’s exposure was less than 20% of net equity and that he did not expect operational disruption.

Neither executive disclosed a dollar amount for the exposure or confirmed financial losses.

Oct. 29 at 11:40 pm UTC

Ripple freezes RLUSD linked to Binance hack

Ripple is freezing holdings of its dollar-pegged RLUSD stablecoin linked to the Binance hack, according to Jack McDonald, the company’s senior vice president of stablecoins.

McDonald said Ripple was “actively freezing affected funds” and coordinating with relevant parties to support the investigation. He did not disclose the amount frozen.

Oct. 29 at 11:35 pm UTC

Binance says $2.54 billion frozen after hack

Binance said the verified total of assets frozen in connection with the hack had reached $2.54 billion, clarifying differing figures circulating publicly, including references to $1.8 billion.

The exchange said the total could increase as its teams work with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets. Binance said it would publish further figures once verified.

Oct. 29 at 10:36 pm UTC

World Liberty Financial freezes $27 million in USD1

World Liberty Financial has frozen $27 million in US-dollar-pegged stablecoin USD1 and $2 million worth of WLFI, according to Binance co-founder Yi He.

“USD1 has taken proactive steps to freeze the $27 million in USD1 associated with the Binance hack,” said World Liberty Financial co-founder and CEO Zach Witkoff.

World Liberty Financial said it worked with BitGo to freeze the stolen WLFI and USD1 funds.

“We will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation and support efforts to hold those responsible accountable. Protecting our users remains a top priority,” said World Liberty in a post on X.

Oct. 29 at 10:33 pm UTC

Binance says withdrawals will resume once issues resolved

Binance says its team is conducting security checks and will resume withdrawals as soon as the “security issue” is resolved.

Oct. 29 at 10:32 pm UTC

Aave confirms lending freeze, says contracts unaffected

Decentralized lending platform Aave said it had frozen all markets operated by its community governance system across its V3 and V4 versions as a precaution following the Binance hack.

New deposits and borrowing are paused, but users can still withdraw funds and repay existing loans.

Aave said its smart contracts were unaffected and that loans remained backed by collateral worth more than the amounts borrowed.

Oct. 29 at 9:19 pm UTC

Binance investigates $5.8 billion security breach

Binance is investigating a potential multibillion-dollar security breach involving one of its Ethereum wallets, after suspicious transfers prompted stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle to reportedly freeze billions in assets.

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph on Thursday that the exchange was investigating reports of a potential security issue but had not confirmed any impact on user funds. The spokesperson said its security teams were reviewing the activity and would provide updates once more information was verified.

Concerns were first raised by blockchain researcher Spreek, who posted on X that assets from a Binance-linked Ethereum wallet had been transferred to a newly created address through a contract call allegedly funded by Tornado Cash. Spreek later reported that wallets connected to the transfers had begun selling Tether USDt (USDT) through decentralized exchanges.

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence later identified a collection of wallets labeled “binance-hacker-1029” holding approximately $5.84 billion in digital assets. The figure represents the wallets’ reported holdings rather than a confirmed estimate of stolen funds.

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said the activity appeared to be a hack, adding that Tether and Circle had frozen approximately $971 million and $823 million, respectively. Zhao said he expected all user funds to be fully covered.

Source: Arkham Intelligence

Tether, Circle freeze over $2.36 billion as Binance outflows reach $3.3 billion

Blockchain security firm Blockaid said its team had identified roughly $3.3 billion in suspicious transfers involving Binance-linked wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche.

Shortly after news of the hack emerged, Tether and Circle, the two largest stablecoin issuers by market capitalization, said they had frozen a combined $2.36 billion in tokens linked to the suspected incident.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with law enforcement and would continue supporting the investigation.

A few minutes later, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT linked to the potential exploit.

“Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority,” Ardoino wrote.

The Binance hack came hours after Polymarket temporarily halted trading following a compromise at a third-party provider. The prediction market platform said it had fixed the issue and pledged to reimburse affected users, with all systems reported operational by 7:05 p.m. UTC Thursday.

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