Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is investigating a possible hacker attack after billions of dollars left its wallets on Thursday, October 29. The exchange has not yet confirmed any impact on user funds, and stablecoin issuers have frozen over $2 billion.
Blockchain analysts noticed suspicious transfers on Thursday evening. According to the Crypto Briefing service, ETH, USDT and USDC left Binance’s hot wallets within about 40 minutes (between 20:24 and 21:04 UTC). The funds were sent to new addresses and moved on within minutes. The same service reports that the attack was funded through Tornado Cash, a mixer that conceals the origin of funds.
How much has disappeared
Estimates vary and are not official. FXStreet cites about $2.77 billion, while Crypto Briefing gives a range of $2.5–3.5 billion. The CryptoTicker service, citing Etherscan data, calculates among other things about 1.6 billion USDT, about 780 million USDC and almost 195,000 ETH (about $442 million). Binance has not published its own figure.
What Binance says
A exchange spokesperson said the company is aware of reports of a possible security incident and is actively investigating it. As quoted by Yahoo Finance via BeInCrypto, at this stage the exchange „has not confirmed any impact on user funds.” Binance also asks users not to click unofficial links or share account details. Updates are to be posted on the exchange’s official channels.
Co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs Binance.com, wrote on X that „this looks like a hacker attack.” He added that, as a shareholder, he expects user funds to be fully covered. According to Crypto News Flash, co-CEO Yi He assured that customer funds are safe (SAFU, Binance’s emergency fund).
Frozen stablecoins
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote that the company froze over 1.567 billion USDT linked to the possible attack. Circle, the issuer of USDC, said that in coordination with law enforcement it froze over 800 million USDC. The attacker cannot move or exchange the frozen stablecoins. Ether in the recipient’s wallet is not subject to such freezing. According to Cointelegraph, the transfers caused price drops across the crypto market.
Context
If the scale is confirmed, it will be one of the largest exchange attacks in history. So far, the main comparison is the 2025 hack of Bybit (about $1.5 billion). We previously reported on the theft from the Bitget exchange and traces leading to North Korea. Sources cited by FinanceFeeds recall that on October 27 Binance reported blocking attacks linked to North Korea. However, there is no confirmation that it is the same perpetrator.
What it means
For users in Poland, the key question is whether Binance keeps withdrawals running and covers any losses from its own reserves. For now, the exchange says customer funds have not been affected. Until an official report is published, it is worth trusting only messages posted on Binance’s official channels, because events like this usually attract fake links and scammers impersonating the exchange. At the time of publication, withdrawals on Binance are suspended.
