Binance Suspends Some Withdrawals Amid Security Investigation

The cryptocurrency exchange said its security teams were urgently examining reports of a possible breach. Binance said customers’ funds were safe and urged users to rely only on its official channels for updates, warning them to avoid suspicious messages and links seeking account information.

A Binance spokesperson said withdrawals had been paused across multiple networks as a precaution. Changpeng Zhao, the company’s founder and largest shareholder, had earlier said a hack was likely and that he expected users’ losses to be covered, without explaining the basis for that expectation.

Crypto observers have estimated that at least $2 billion may have left Binance’s internet-connected wallets. Some estimates put potential losses as high as $5.7 billion, but those figures remain unverified, and the theft may still be underway. The exchange has not identified a suspected perpetrator or said whether it has heard from one.

Circle froze about $800 million in Tether moving through its networks, while Tether froze roughly $1.56 billion tied to the incident. If losses in the billions are confirmed, the breach could rank among the largest in crypto history. Separately, Polymarket briefly halted trading and withdrawals after a third-party software provider was compromised; security researchers estimated that about $2 million in user funds was stolen in that incident.