Circle Internet Group and Tether have frozen approximately $1.8 billion in funds linked to a potential security breach at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volumes. Binance has not yet confirmed a hack but acknowledged investigating a potential security issue on its platform. In a statement, a Binance spokesperson assured users that their funds are safe and that the company's security teams are reviewing the situation urgently.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire revealed that the company had frozen over 800 million in USD Coin related to the incident. Meanwhile, Tether CEO Paolo Adroino announced that his firm had frozen more than 1.5 billion in USDT stablecoins possibly connected to the breach. The news caused Bitcoin's price to drop more than 3%, pushing it below $80,000.
Shares of Circle also declined about 5% in off-hours trading on Thursday. The situation remains fluid, with Binance promising updates through official channels once verified information is available.