Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals as it investigates a security incident with an estimated total impact of $6.3bn.
The exchange said it had worked with industry partners to freeze affected assets, with around $3bn identified so far. It added that user funds remained safe.
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The incident prompted declines across crypto markets in early Asian trading, reported Reuters. Bitcoin fell more than 3% to $76,368, its lowest level in six weeks. Ether also declined more than 3% to $2,178, a two-month low.
BNB, Binance’s exchange token, fell 5% over 24 hours to $709.70, the news agency added citing CoinGecko.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the breach may have begun with a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. The attacker then gained access to an internal system and made unauthorised withdrawals, according to the exchange.
“We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified,” the statement said.
Binance plans to cover all losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and corporate funds. It will also publish an updated proof of reserves following the completion of the remediation.
The exchange reported 335 million registered users worldwide and approximately $162.8bn in assets under custody in its 2025 annual report.
Industry participants said the reported incident could rank among the largest cryptocurrency thefts to date.
Binance.US, which operates separately from Binance, said it was not affected. Coinbase said it was also unaffected and was monitoring developments.
