Binance Founder Says Hack Likely After DevOps Laptop Breach

Binance estimated the total impact of a potential security incident at approximately $6.3 billion on Thursday. The figure places the event among the largest cryptocurrency security breaches on record. The company confirmed it is actively investigating reports of a hack after its founder acknowledged the incident appears to be a genuine attack.

Changpeng Zhao, who founded the exchange in 2017, posted on X that the situation "does look like a hack on Binance." Although Zhao stepped down as CEO in 2023 following a guilty plea for failure to prevent money laundering, he stated as a shareholder that he expects all user funds to be fully covered. Binance had not explicitly confirmed that funds were stolen, but its teams are working around the clock to resolve the issue.

The company wrote that its initial investigation suggests a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop allowed an attacker to access a service container. This access enabled the submission of unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance added that it found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. The exchange stated it will share more technical details once the facts are fully verified.

In response to the threat, Binance temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals. It worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, reporting that roughly $3 billion was frozen on-chain by late Thursday. A spokesperson said in a statement that user funds are completely safe and that security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency.

Stablecoin providers also moved quickly to protect assets. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote on X that the company froze the equivalent of more than $800 million in currency in coordination with law enforcement. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his company froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion in currency related to the potential hack.

The incident affected market prices on Thursday evening. The price of bitcoin dropped 3.2% to under $79,000. Zhao was released from prison last year after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He was the first person sentenced to prison time for violations of that law, which requires U.S. financial institutions to know their customers and monitor transactions.

Binance said it is working closely with law enforcement, issuers, and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and freeze additional assets. The company noted that it will provide updates through official channels as soon as verified information is available.