Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reported a security breach affecting an estimated $6.3 Bn in assets, in what appears to be the largest crypto heist on record. The exchange said it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze around $3 Bn on-chain.

Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals while it completes security checks. It has also revoked the affected address authorisation and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and recover funds. Withdrawals are expected to be restored in the next 48 hours, Binance said. 

The exchange said it would cover all losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds. It also plans to publish updated proof of reserves after completing remediation. 

Binance said its initial investigation suggests that a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer may have allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.

The exchange said it had found no evidence of wallet private keys being leaked. It will publish a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the findings have been verified.

Cryptocurrency news platform Watcher.Guru reported that the affected assets included Bitcoin, Ether, Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, and TRON, among others. Its tally put the Bitcoin outflow alone at around $1.45 Bn.

In an earlier X post, Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao said Tether had frozen approximately $971 Mn and Circle around $823 Mn linked to the suspected hack. Those were initial figures: subsequent reporting put Tether’s freeze at more than $1.5 Bn. 

However, experts are claiming based on on-chain data that the hacker was able to deposit the stolen assets on decentralised liquidity platform Aave before they were frozen, and borrow Ether against them.

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