Binance had assured that funds deposited by customers on its site were totally safe, while several experts reported colossal misappropriations. Binance also said it had suspended trades on certain products.
“This looks like a cyberattack on Binance,” commented on the X social network, Changpeng Zhao, the former head of the platform who no longer holds operational duties but remains the group’s majority shareholder.
The head of Tether, the issuer of a cryptocurrency called USDT, the third-largest by circulating supply (around $180 billion), announced that it had frozen about $1.6 billion of these assets in connection with a potential attack on Binance.
As for Circle’s chief executive, who oversees the USDC cryptocurrency, he reported the immobilization of about $800 million.
USDT and USDC are stablecoins, i.e., electronic currencies whose value is pegged to a traditional currency, in this case the dollar.
Circle’s chief, Jeremy Allaire, clarified that this action had been taken in coordination with the authorities.
For several hours, before Binance confirmed the attack around 11:30 p.m. GMT, several experts had asserted that hackers had breached the platform.
Some described it as the gravest attack ever carried out in the world of cryptocurrencies, with a haul greater than the $1.5 billion stolen in February 2025 on the Bybit platform, attributed to hackers linked to North Korea.
In this context, the price of Bitcoin fell sharply. By 11:35 p.m. GMT, it was down 3.41%, at $78,492.
By 23:35 GMT, Bitcoin was down 3.41%, at $78,492.
