Binance investigating hack as suspicious outflows reach up to $5.8 billion

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, appears to have suffered a major hack.

Onchain data flagged by analyst Spreek shows about $3.55 billion in incoming transfers to the unlabeled wallet, with nearly $900 million subsequently moved across other wallets. Conor Grogan, a senior director and product leader at Coinbase, says the amount is up to $5.8 billion.

While Binance has not publicly confirmed a breach, co-founder and Chief Customer Service Officer Yi He said the firm is actively investigating.

"We are aware of reports of a potential security issue and we are actively investigating." He wrote in a post on X. "Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information. Users should remain cautious of scams and should not trust unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information."

Former CEO Changpeng Zhao said user funds are safe and that he expects them to be fully covered, while crediting Tether and Circle for quickly freezing the funds.

"I don't manage Binance (.com) anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered," Zhao wrote on X.

Onchain data showed Tether and Circle froze a combined $1.79 billion in USDT and USDC held in a wallet that received billions of dollars in transfers from Binance hot wallets. Later, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin firm froze more than 1.567 billion USDT.

"Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority," Ardoino said. "Stay safe everyone."

Blockaid said it is investigating approximately $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows from Binance hot wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Avalanche.

Aave froze lending markets to prevent the Binance hacker from borrowing, onchain data shows. The protocol has not put out an official statement.

The BNB token was down more than 5.5% at publication time.

This is a developing story.