Bitcoin (BTC) fell to around $78,500 early on Friday after Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suspended withdrawals and then deposits following a suspected security breach on Thursday, 29 October. On-chain estimates of the assets taken range from about $5.3 billion to $5.8 billion. Binance has not confirmed a loss figure. If the higher estimates are confirmed, this would be the largest crypto hack on record, well above the roughly $1.5 billion taken from another exchange in February 2025.
What happened
Funds began leaving Binance-linked hot wallets at about 16:24 ET (20:24 GMT) on Thursday. Glassnode estimated about $5.3 billion in outflows, including $1.66 billion in Tether (USDT), 17,985 BTC (about $1.45 billion) and $767 million in USD Coin (USDC). Ether and a range of smaller tokens were also taken. Glassnode said Binance’s balance of its own BNB token was left untouched.
Binance first said it was investigating a potential security issue and that user funds were safe. It later suspended all deposits and withdrawals as a precaution, said it was working with law enforcement and stated that “Binance will cover all losses.” Co-founder Changpeng Zhao said the activity looked like a hack. He no longer runs the company but remains its largest shareholder.
Security researchers are examining whether the attacker abused EIP-7702, an Ethereum feature that lets a wallet delegate actions to a smart contract, to take control of an Ethereum hot wallet. The cause has not been confirmed, and that explanation would not account for the reported outflows on the Bitcoin and Tron networks.
Stablecoin issuers freeze over $2.4 billion
Tether said it had frozen more than 1.567 billion USDT linked to the incident, and Circle froze more than 800 million USDC. Binance said about $2.54 billion of assets had been frozen so far and that the figure may rise. A freeze blocks the tokens from moving but does not return them to their owners. Assets such as bitcoin and ether have no issuer that can freeze them.
Market reaction
Bitcoin was down 3.5% at $78,505.9 by 19:41 ET (23:41 GMT) and was on course for a 6.1% loss in October. Ether fell 4.4% to $2,256.26, and BNB dropped 7.8% to $700.11. The selling added to pressure that had already built earlier in the week from hotter US inflation data and weaker appetite for technology-linked risk.
What to watch
Markets are watching for a confirmed loss figure from Binance, the timing of the restart of withdrawals, and whether investigators trace or freeze more of the stolen assets. Any sign of stress spreading to other platforms or to stablecoin liquidity could weigh further on crypto sentiment.
