The key facts
- Changpeng Zhao suggested Binance had been hacked after reports of asset withdrawals exceeding $3.5 billion
- Tether and Circle froze roughly $1.8 billion (~$971 million and ~$823 million)
- Bitcoin fell below $80,000 during trading
Reports of a large withdrawal of funds
Changpeng Zhao, founder of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said the trading platform had likely been hacked amid reports of digital assets worth more than $3.5 billion being withdrawn, Life.ru reports. According to circulating data, more than 60 Ethereum network tokens with a total value of about $2.53 billion were sent in a single transaction to a new external address. One of the addresses linked to the operation had previously received funds through the anonymization service Tornado Cash.
Zhao's reaction and the freezing of funds
In a post published on X, Zhao wrote: “User funds are safe! It appears this is a hack on Binance. Thank you for the quick freezing by Tether (~$971 million) and Circle (~$823 million).” Thus, the stablecoin issuers froze nearly $1.8 billion. The exchange's founder also noted that he no longer runs Binance but remains its shareholder, and expressed hope that any possible losses would be fully reimbursed to the platform's users.
The market under pressure
Amid reports of the possible incident, the cryptocurrency market continues to decline: bitcoin fell below $80,000 during trading, and Ethereum and other digital assets also came under pressure. It should be noted that some of the information about the incident is being circulated with the wording “according to available data” — the publication does not provide exact figures or confirmation of the hack itself from Binance.
