Updated Oct 29, 2026, 7:36 p.m. EDT Published Oct 29, 2026, 5:12 p.m. EDT
3 min read
Summary
- Binance is looking into a suspected security breach involving over $5.7 billion in digital assets, per Arkham records, which could stand as the largest cryptocurrency heist in history.
- Circle and Tether stated they locked more than $2.3 billion in stablecoins while the alleged wrongdoer routed funds across decentralized lending and trading protocols.
- Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, stated user balances will be reimbursed, though the exchange has not verified if it will tap its roughly $1 billion backup pool, which falls short of the reported theft amount.
Binance, the top digital asset trading platform by trade volume, suffered a breach exceeding $5 billion on Thursday in what would qualify as the most substantial cryptocurrency attack ever recorded.
The perpetrator’s address currently holds in excess of $5.7 billion worth of various digital tokens drained from Binance, according to Arkham, featuring nearly $1.5 billion in bitcoin along with $900 million in ether. The address also maintains approximately $1.4 billion combined in USDT and USDC.
“Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating,” said Binance on X. The trading platform stated it halted withdrawals and will bring them back online once the security glitch is resolved.
“This is the biggest crypto hack in history,” Ido Ben-Natan, co-founder and CEO of crypto security Blockaid told CoinDesk.
“User funds are safe,” said Binance founder CZ. “It does look like a hack on Binance … I don’t manage Binance anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”
Digital asset valuations are sliding following the announcement. Bitcoin BTC$77,807.28 has pulled back 3% to $78,800, whereas ether ETH$2,249.93 registers a 4% decline. BNB BNB$697.09 trades down by 6.7% and AAVE AAVE$119.58 drops 8%.
The Binance security breach marks the second incident on Thursday, following an announcement from prediction market operator Polymarket regarding a breach at one of their third-party vendors. Damages stemming from that event were significantly lower, coming in below $3 million; however, they appeared minor relative to the Binance breach.
Potential Binance hacker’s crypto holdings (Arkham Intelligence)
Binance exploiter moves funds through DeFi as race to prevent freezes heats up
The address associated with the Binance intrusion is channeling assets via the decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI), based on Arkham blockchain analytics, while measures to trace and potentially freeze the stolen capital persist.
The exploiter borrowed at least 20,000 wrapped ether (WETH), valued near $44 million through decentralized protocol Aave AAVE$119.58 utilizing stolen USDT as collateral.
The chief executives of stablecoin providers Circle and Tether both noted they were monitoring the attack. Tether’s Paolo Ardoino noted that his organization locked over $1.57 billion in USDT, while Circle’s Jeremy Allaire reported that his organization froze more than $800 million of USDC.
Following a major digital asset heist, wrongdoers frequently attempt to exchange tokens that issuers possess the ability to freeze, such as centralized stablecoins like USDT and USDC, for alternative cryptocurrencies that lack central issuer controls. Decentralized borrowing platforms and exchanges like Aave and Uniswap permit participants to swap straight from personal wallets without depending on a centralized platform to execute the transaction. These movements alone, however, do not confirm whether the capital has become impossible to recover or block.
Binance maintained approximately $144 billion in total reserves on its system prior to the security breach, according to DefiLlama figures. The pilfered capital represents roughly 4% of those total holdings.
Binance maintains a financial buffer to absorb at least a portion of potential damages. Its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), created back in 2018 to safeguard clients during emergency situations and security incidents, holds approximately $1 billion in bitcoin.
This financial reserve might assist in reimbursing impacted clients, though Binance has not verified within the provided statements if it intends to utilize the fund for this specific event.
While Binance co-founder Zhao acknowledged that the “loss might be a bit higher than that,” he emphasized that the enterprise “will cover“ the deficit.
Evgeny Gaevoy, chief executive of crypto market maker Wintermute, stated on X that “Binance has enough to withstand 3-4x of current hit and still be largely intact.”
This is a developing story and will be updated. For up-to-the-minute updates, please check our live blog.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/29/potential-multi-billion-binance-hack-hitting-crypto-markets.
