Binance said on October 29 that it was investigating reports of a potential security issue following alerts about large wallet transfers. In response, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced the company had frozen more than 1.567 billion USDT. The exchange assured customers that their funds were "completely safe" and said its security teams were urgently reviewing available information, promising further updates through official channels once details had been verified.
Tether's freeze prevents the affected USDT from being moved from the offending addresses. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao commended Tether for acting promptly and noted that approximately $823 million in USDC had also been frozen by Circle, the USDC issuer. Zhao said the activity appeared consistent with a hack and expressed expectation that customer assets would be completely covered.
Security firm Blockaid detected large transfers involving Binance-owned wallets beginning around 20:24 UTC on October 29 across multiple networks including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Optimism. Blockaid's preliminary estimates included approximately $2.5 billion from two Ethereum wallets and 780 million USDC from another account, noting these amounts were still being reconciled. The firm acknowledged that while the transfers appeared consistent with fraudulent activity, they could also represent internal money movement. One examined account was found to have been configured to allow a designated operator to drain its assets.
Binance has not provided a loss estimate or explanation of how the suspected incident occurred. Further details about affected systems, the scope of any attack, and customer impact remain pending.
