Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has suspended deposits and withdrawals after what it describes as a potential security issue, with on-chain watchers saying billions of dollars were drained from its hot wallets. The size of the loss is unconfirmed and estimates vary widely.

The incident began on Thursday, October 29, when users reported funds leaving Binance wallets. Binance first paused withdrawals on multiple networks. According to investingLive, it widened this to all deposits and withdrawals around midnight GMT on Friday, and also paused trading on its Binance Alpha token platform. This report is based on information available early on October 30, and the situation is still changing.

Binance co-CEO Yi He said on X: “We are aware of reports of a potential security issue and we are actively investigating.” Spokesperson Ross O’Leary said the exchange “temporarily suspended withdrawals on multiple networks” as a precaution, and Binance told users: “Rest assured that user funds are completely safe.” Binance has pledged to cover all losses and promised a full post-mortem, but has given no reopening date, loss figure, attack method or attribution, according to investingLive.

The numbers do not agree

• About $1 billion or slightly more: Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and largest shareholder, who no longer runs the company, suggested losses could be slightly above $1 billion, as reported by investingLive. He also posted on X that the exchange was likely hacked and said he expected users’ funds to be fully covered.
• About $3.3 billion: FinanceFeeds reported roughly this amount leaving Binance’s Ethereum hot wallets.
• $5.5 to $5.7 billion: Android Headlines cited $5.57 billion from unnamed on-chain data, and CoinDesk, cited by TechCrunch, put the high-end estimate at $5.7 billion.
• $6.3 billion: Bloomberg and CNBC headlines put the impact at $6.3 billion. I could not open those articles.

None of these figures comes from Binance. If any of the higher numbers is confirmed, it would be the largest crypto theft on record. The 2025 Bybit hack, blamed on North Korean hackers, was about $1.4 to $1.5 billion.

Funds frozen

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company froze more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with law enforcement. Tether froze roughly $1.56 billion in USDT. Together, investingLive counts about $2.5 billion in verified frozen assets. Binance’s emergency user-protection fund, SAFU, holds about $1 billion in bitcoin, according to that report, which means a loss at the higher estimates could exceed it. Binance has not said how it would cover a larger shortfall.

Binance has not named a suspect. CNN’s headline says North Korea is suspected, and other outlets point to the Lazarus Group, but I could not open those reports and do not know what evidence they rely on. Android Headlines, citing unnamed researchers, says the attacker used delegated smart contract code to drain the hot wallets. Treat attribution as unconfirmed.

Bitcoin fell below $79,000 and, by later reports, to about $77,700, while BNB fell about 7% to 9% to roughly $694 to $699, according to Android Headlines and investingLive. Binance’s own statement told users to ignore unofficial links and requests for account information. Separately, prediction market Polymarket paused trading and withdrawals after a compromised third-party software vendor was exploited, with losses reported at $2 million to $2.7 million. Nothing links it to Binance.