Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Thursday it is investigating a potential security breach that may have impacted over $6.3 billion. The company's founder, Changpeng Zhao, described the incident as a possible hack, though Binance has not yet confirmed any loss of user funds. The exchange temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals while it conducts security checks and works with law enforcement to freeze affected assets.
Binance's initial investigation suggests that a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop may have allowed attackers to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The company has frozen roughly $3 billion in affected assets on-chain and assured users that their funds are safe. Stablecoin providers Tether and Circle also took action, freezing over $800 million and $1.5 billion in funds related to the incident, respectively.
The price of bitcoin dropped 3.2% Thursday evening to under $79,000. Zhao, who stepped down as Binance CEO in 2023 after pleading guilty to a felony related to money laundering, posted on X that user funds would be fully covered. He was released from prison last year after being sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.