Binance hacked: withdrawals paused after up to $5.7 billion drained, $2.5 billion frozen by Tether and Circle

Binance was hacked overnight and has paused withdrawals on several networks, after an attacker drained a hot wallet of an estimated $2 billion to $5.7 billion in crypto. The world's biggest exchange says user funds are "completely safe", TechCrunch reported, and stablecoin issuers have already frozen more than $2.5 billion of what was taken.

If confirmed at that size, it is the largest crypto theft on record, well above the $1.4 billion taken from Bybit in 2025.

What happened, in Pakistan time

CoinDesk traced the theft on the blockchain:

1. 1:24am PKT Friday (20:24 UTC Thursday): 167,464 ETH moved out of the wallet Binance labels "Binance 14" to the attacker.
2. Minutes later: 28,005.6 ETH followed from "Binance 16".
3. About 15 minutes after that: 195,460 ETH, then worth about $442 million, was sent on to a second address.

In all about 204,500 ETH, roughly 5.6% of Binance's ether reserves, plus USDT, USDC and other tokens. CoinDesk says the attacker obtained the wallet's signing key and used EIP-7702, an Ethereum feature that lets a wallet hand control to software, to turn it into a sweeper that forwarded every incoming deposit.

What has been frozen

Figures from CoinDesk, citing Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. Al Jazeera put the frozen total at $2.54 billion.

What Binance says

Spokesperson Ross O'Leary said withdrawals were "temporarily suspended" on multiple networks "as a precautionary measure". Zhao, who no longer runs the exchange but is its largest shareholder, posted that he expects users to be "fully covered". Binance's SAFU emergency fund holds about $1 billion in bitcoin. CoinDesk notes the stolen wallet was counted in Binance's 1 October proof of reserves, so ether backing is now near 94% until the hole is filled; the next reserve snapshot is due on 1 November.

The market

Bitcoin fell to about $77,000 and BNB dropped about 8%, Cointelegraph reported. Bitcoin was near $81,500 on Thursday afternoon. Track it in rupees on our bitcoin price page and ether page.

If you use Binance in Pakistan

Binance is the exchange most Pakistani crypto users and freelancers rely on, including for P2P trades in rupees.

• Do not panic-sell or move funds through unofficial links. Binance has warned that scammers are already posting fake "recovery" and "withdrawal" pages. Use only the app or binance.com.
• Expect delays on withdrawals until Binance lifts the pause network by network.
• Check your balance in the app rather than on third-party trackers.
• P2P traders: do not release rupees or USDT to a buyer who says their funds are "stuck" and asks you to go first.

To see what a USDT balance is worth in rupees, use the currency converter.