Finance1 min read

Crypto exchange Binance freezes billions in funds amid potential $6.3bn security breach

By · Via The Guardian Business · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Binance initiated an urgent probe into the suspected historic theft while working alongside law enforcement and ecosystem partners, successfully locating around $3 billion of the targeted capital. Major issuers rapidly intervened to contain the fallout, with Tether freezing nearly $1.57 billion and Circle locking down more than $800 million. Amid the disruption, co-founder Yi He pledged that the exchange will fully reimburse any losses to ensure user balances remain secure. The incident promptly dragged bitcoin down over 3% to a six-week low of $76,368 and pulled down industry-linked equities.

Key points

  • Binance paused all platform withdrawals and deposits while coordinating with industry pee…: Binance paused all platform withdrawals and deposits while coordinating with industry peers to trace and freeze compromised assets.
  • Exchange leadership pledged to cover all customer losses resulting from the unauthorized…: Exchange leadership pledged to cover all customer losses resulting from the unauthorized intrusion to keep user funds whole.
  • Analysts warn that the unprecedented scale of the breach could elevate counterparty conce…: Analysts warn that the unprecedented scale of the breach could elevate counterparty concerns and dampen broader investor risk appetite.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has said it’s investigating reports of a potential $6.3bn security breach that analysts said could amount to the most significant incident relating to digital assets on record.

It wasn’t immediately clear the extent of the damage hackers might have been able to cause, and Binance did not explicitly confirmed that funds had been stolen. The company said its teams are “working around the clock” to resolve the issue.

“Rest assured that user funds are completely safe,” a Binance spokesperson said in a statement.

Binance said it had worked with partners to freeze the affected assets, with about $3bn located so far. It gave no update on the status of the remaining $3.3bn as Binance co-founder Yi He said the company would cover “all hacking losses”.

An initial investigation suggested the breach may have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers, which let an attacker gain access to one of its systems and make unauthorised withdrawals, Binance said.

Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, has 335…

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