Crypto platform Binance confirms major hack, more than $2.5B frozen

NEW YORK, United States — Cryptocurrency platform Binance said Thursday it had fallen victim to a major hack that had resulted in the freezing of more than $2.5 billion in an effort to prevent them from being stolen.The company -- the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes -- said it had suspended trading on certain products.

It nevertheless insisted: 'User funds are completely safe.'Several experts said it looked like a massive amount of assets had been stolen.'It does look like a hack on Binance,' said former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the group but remains a majority shareholder.

Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether -- a company that issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT -- said his firm froze about $1.6 billion 'related to a potential Binance exchange hack.'Circle boss Jeremy Allaire said his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC.

USDT and USDC are both 'stablecoins,' or digital currencies whose value is linked to a traditional currency, the US dollar.For several hours before Binance confirmed the attack, several industry observers said hackers had managed to reach the platform.Some said it could be the biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind, with a haul exceeding the $1.

5 billion stolen in February 2025 from the Bybit platform -- an incident attributed to hackers affiliated with North Korea.Bitcoin prices fell more than three percent on the news.