Not only that, this Binance hack also led to the freezing of more than 3 billion USD in cryptocurrency assets globally.

More than $6 billion in cryptocurrency may have been stolen from Binance, the world's largest digital asset exchange, in an attack that is considered by blockchain analysis organizations to be the largest in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. Faced with the unusual scale of the incident, Binance had to temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals and coordinate with many organizations to block the flow of stolen assets.

According to Chainalysis, the amount of money stolen in the incident is estimated to be up to 5.9 billion USD. Meanwhile, TRM Labs gave an even larger number, exceeding 6 billion USD. If these estimates are confirmed, the attack would far exceed the previous record held by the Bybit exchange, where hackers stole about $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025.

However, the exact scale of damage has not yet been determined. Some security experts estimate that the amount of money hackers actually appropriated could be in the range of 2-5.5 billion USD. Binance has just confirmed that it is investigating a potential security incident, and has not announced the cause or the total value of lost assets.

Before this development, Binance said it had frozen about 3 billion USD in assets related to the incident. The number may continue to increase as the exchange coordinates with law enforcement agencies, token issuers and companies that specialize in analyzing blockchain data to trace the flow of funds.

Of these, Tether has frozen nearly 1.57 billion USD in assets, while Circle has frozen more than 800 million USD. Ripple also participated in handling the incident by freezing about 200 million USD in related assets. World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company linked to US President Donald Trump and his family, said it coordinated with BitGo custody to prevent the dispersal of part of the stolen money.

The ability of stablecoin issuers to directly freeze assets is an important element in efforts to prevent hackers. Once a coin is blacklisted, the owner of the associated wallet address will not be able to transfer, trade or redeem those tokens for other assets.

During the investigation, Binance has temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals to conduct security checks, and suspended trading on the Binance Alpha platform as a precautionary measure. Founder Changpeng Zhao, who is no longer running the company, said the incident showed signs of a cyber attack. He confirmed that user assets are still safe.

Binance co-founder Yi He also announced that the company would be responsible for covering all damages caused by the hack, although he did not provide further details on how it would be handled. Binance said it would only restore withdrawals after security issues were resolved.

The incident quickly put pressure on the cryptocurrency market. In early Friday trading in Asia, Bitcoin fell about 2%, to $77,646, its lowest level in 6 weeks. Ethereum also lost about 2%, down to 2,238.76 USD, the lowest in 2 months. Notably, BNB, the cryptocurrency associated with the Binance ecosystem, dropped more than 8% within 24 hours.

Coinbase shares fell 4.8%, while Strategy, a business famous for its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, lost nearly 6% in after-hours trading in the US. This development shows that concerns are not limited to Binance but also spread to businesses related to the digital asset market.

For Binance, the ability to absorb losses is a notable issue. This exchange has more than 335 million registered accounts globally and recorded about 160 billion USD in custody assets in its 2024 annual report. The company also maintains the SAFU fund, set up to protect user assets in the event of a security incident.

Some experts believe that the damage may be within Binance's ability to handle thanks to its asset protection fund worth about $1.2 billion, along with a significant amount of money that has been frozen by Tether and Circle. However, the actual scale of the attack still needs to be verified.