Astana, 30 October. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has suspended all deposits and withdrawals and pledged to cover all losses after, according to blockchain analysts, about 3.3 billion dollars left its “hot” wallets on the Ethereum network on the evening of 29 October; 2.54 billion dollars have already been frozen, the exchange said.
The first transfers took place at about 20:24 GMT (01:24 Astana time) from a wallet labelled Binance 14 by the Etherscan block explorer: tokens worth about 2.4 billion dollars went to an address created the same day. A “hot” wallet is one permanently connected to the network, from which an exchange pays out customer withdrawals. At first Binance told TechCrunch it was aware of reports of a “potential security issue” and that user funds were “completely safe”; spokesperson Ross O’Leary said withdrawals on several networks had been suspended after a “security incident” as a precaution. Later deposits and withdrawals were halted entirely; no date for resumption has been given.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote that the transfer looks like a hack and said he expected user funds to be fully covered. Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino reported freezing more than 1.567 billion USDT stablecoins linked to the incident; Circle, the issuer of USDC, froze about 823 million dollars, according to Zhao. Unlike bitcoin, stablecoins are issued by companies that can block coins at specific addresses — which is why part of the outflow could be stopped. Binance itself has not officially confirmed a hack or named the size of the losses.
Markets fell: the exchange’s BNB token dropped 8.6% to 694 dollars and bitcoin slipped below 77,000 dollars. To cover losses Binance has the SAFU reserve fund set up in 2018, holding about 1 billion dollars in bitcoin. If a theft of around 3 billion dollars is confirmed, it will be the largest hack of a crypto exchange: the previous record is about 1.5 billion dollars stolen from Bybit in February 2025.
What it means: The world’s largest exchange, through which a significant share of global crypto trading passes, has not confirmed a hack but has frozen all operations — customers can neither withdraw nor deposit money until the exchange finishes its checks.
What we know now: Binance is investigating the incident and promises to cover losses; 2.54 billion dollars have been frozen, including more than 2.37 billion by Tether and Circle. The exchange has not said when withdrawals will resume or whether customers of its Kazakh unit, Binance Kazakhstan, are affected.
Background: Kazakhstan hosts Binance Kazakhstan, a company licensed by the regulator of the Astana International Financial Centre (AFSA) to run a digital asset trading platform. It became the strategic partner of the state crypto fund Alem Crypto Fund, set up by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development: the fund’s first asset, in September 2025, was the BNB token; the amount invested was not disclosed. In 2019, 7,000 bitcoins were stolen from Binance; the SAFU fund covered the losses then.
