Binance Estimates $6.3 Billion Impact From Security Breach

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said its investigation points to a possible compromise of a DevOps engineer’s laptop. The attacker may have used access to a service container to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions, the company said. Binance said its review uncovered no indication that wallet private keys were exposed and promised further technical details after its investigation is complete.

The exchange estimated the incident’s impact at about $6.3 billion and said roughly $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen with help from blockchain partners. Tether said it froze nearly $1.57 billion in related funds, while Circle said it froze more than $800 million in coordination with law enforcement. Ripple also froze about $200 million, Binance co-founder Yi He said.

Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals as its teams conducted security checks and worked with law enforcement and industry partners to trace assets. The exchange said customers would not bear the financial impact and that it would cover losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company funds. It also said it would publish an updated proof of reserves after the incident is resolved.

Bitcoin fell to a six-week low on October 30, while ether reached a two-month low. Binance said its teams were continuing to secure the platform and trace additional assets.