Bitcoin traded near $76,300 on Thursday following Binance's confirmation of a significant security breach estimated at $6.3 billion in total impact. The figure would rank the incident among the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record.
Earlier in the trading session, bitcoin had reached a 24-hour high of $81,890 before the selloff triggered the liquidation of millions in leveraged long positions.
Breach Details
In a statement posted on X, Binance said its initial investigation suggests the incident involved a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. The attacker reportedly gained access to a service container and submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The exchange stated it found no evidence of a wallet private key leak.
The $6.3 billion estimate is higher than earlier figures, which had ranged from $2.7 billion to $5.8 billion. Binance said it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with approximately $3 billion frozen on-chain so far.
Response and Asset Recovery
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company froze more than 1.567 billion USDT, and Circle also froze USDC tied to the suspected attacker. Aave reportedly froze lending markets to prevent the suspected attacker from borrowing against the stolen funds.
Binance said it will cover all losses from its SAFU fund and company funds, and that user funds are safe. The exchange has suspended deposits and withdrawals while conducting security checks and working with law enforcement.
Investigation and Updates
Binance said it has revoked the affected address authorization and is working to confirm the identities of those responsible. The company stated it will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and facts are verified, but has not released a timeline.
Binance.US said the incident does not affect its platform. The exchange is asking users to rely only on official Binance channels for updates.
