Binance halts deposits and withdrawals after a security incident it puts at about $6.3 billion, which would top Bybit as the largest crypto theft

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has halted all deposits and withdrawals after what it calls a security incident. The company said on Thursday that the estimated total impact was about $6.3 billion and that about $3 billion of assets had been frozen. AFP reported more than $2.5 billion frozen, and said Binance is working with law enforcement.

Binance has not officially called the event a hack. Founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the exchange, wrote: "It does look like a hack on Binance." Binance's early findings suggest the incident may have involved a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which could have let an attacker reach a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawals; it says it found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked.

Co-founder Yi He said losses would be covered from the Secure Asset Fund for Users, which CoinDesk says holds about $1 billion in bitcoin, and from company funds. Binance said it would publish updated Proof of Reserves once the incident is resolved. Chainalysis estimated about $5.9 billion stolen and Glassnode about $5.3 billion. If confirmed, the loss would be roughly four times the $1.5 billion Bybit theft of February 2025. The US Justice Department and FBI did not immediately respond to AFP.