Tether and Circle freeze over $2.3B after possible Binance breach
Security & Exploits ·
Stablecoin issuers moved to lock down funds tied to a suspected security incident at Binance, with the exchange's co-founder saying customer balances remain intact.
Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs day-to-day operations at Binance, indicated the platform may have suffered a breach, though he maintained that user holdings were not at risk. Tether's chief executive Paolo Ardoino disclosed that the company had locked more than 1.567 billion USDT connected to the suspected incident. Circle's Jeremy Allaire said his firm separately froze upwards of 800 million USDC tied to the same matter, working alongside law enforcement authorities. Combined, the two freezes total more than $2.3 billion.
Binance acknowledged it was looking into reports of a possible security problem and repeated that customer assets remain unaffected. The company said its security staff was conducting an urgent review and would release further details through its own channels only after verifying them. It also cautioned users against falling for scams, suspicious links, or messages soliciting account credentials during the episode, framing such attempts as opportunistic rather than confirmed parts of the breach itself.
Separate blockchain tracking pointed to a much larger movement of funds leaving wallets associated with Binance, with figures cited around $5.643 billion in outflows coinciding with the stablecoin freezes, according to wublockchain.xyz. That on-chain activity, spanning multiple networks, has been described alongside the $2.316 billion in frozen USDT and USDC, though it remains unclear how the broader outflow figure relates directly to the amounts Tether and Circle froze.
CZ expressed appreciation to both stablecoin issuers for their response and reiterated his expectation that all customer funds would ultimately be made whole. The precise cause and scope of the suspected hack have not been detailed by Binance, and the exchange has not yet confirmed whether the incident is fully contained. Four separate sources have reported on aspects of the episode, but official findings from Binance's security review are still pending.